A Cork man who was missing for over three decades ‘built a secret life in the UK’ before he was located.

Patrick ‘Patsy’ O’Sullivan went missing in April of 1992, having last spoken to his family in Lombardstown shortly before his disappearance.

Mr O’Sullivan’s location was finally tracked after more than three decades, although it emerged that he had actually been dead since 2024; he died just months before his family, unaware of his whereabouts, issued a fresh appeal for information.

Speaking following the revelations, Mr O’Sullivan’s brother Jerry said that while he was grieving his brother, he’s relieved to finally have closure on what happened.

Jerry said that it emerged that Patsy had gone to the UK, where he took the name Patrick Aldridge, the surname of his partner. His partner had died in 2022, and Patsy died of sepsis following an underlying health condition in July 2024.

Despite his brother having a secret life in the UK for over three decades, Jerry said that it appeared his brother had a good life, telling PJ Coogan on 96fm: ‘There’s a lot of unanswered questions that we have as a family […] that will never go from our minds: Why didn’t you just ring us once?’

‘We’d always hoped that one day that he’d turn up, let it be an event that we were having or whatever the case may be, or get a phone call. But yeah, it never happened, unfortunately, for us.

‘What we have found out is he changed his name in 1995 to Patrick Aldridge, which was his partner that he had. And his partner passed away in 2022,’ Jerry explained. ‘Back then I suppose, what he’d done, yeah, it must have been a big thing for him… He had to start off a new life by himself and leave everything behind him. And that mustn’t have been easy.

‘He lived a life and seemed to have lived a good life.’

‘We’ve waited for so long for this. It’s a closure for us that we were looking for for so long. I never thought I’d see the day that we’d actually get a closure.’

Jerry went on to praise Gardaí for their efforts in locating his brother over the last three decades, saying that Garda PJ Roche was ‘a breath of fresh air… he went above and beyond, and the team that came in with him then; yeah, they left no stone unturned until they had him found.’

Jerry added that he hopes to travel to the UK to learn more about his late brother’s life.

At the time, Patsy went to Lombardstown in Co Cork after working in Co Kerry for the Easter Bank Holiday. He was expected at a family christening, but never turned up, which raised alarm bells.

While he would often go to work for weeks at a time, he would be regularly in contact with his family and return periodically.

Gardaí confirmed in an update on Monday evening that the body of Patsy was found, and that the search had been stood down.

‘The missing person, Patrick (Patsy) O’Sullivan, whose last known contact with his family was in Lombardstown, County Cork in April 1992, has been located. An Garda Síochána would like to thank the media and public for their assistance.’