Ronan Keating has opened up about his grief in a loving tribute to his brother Ciaran, on what would have been Ciaran's birthday.
Father-of-three Ciarán Keating, aged 57 at the time of his death was killed in a road crash this summer on the N5 near Swinford, Co. Mayo.
Ciarán was en route to his son Ruari's football match when the accident occurred and was declared dead at the scene.
Posting to Instagram, Ronan marked what would have been Ciaráns 58th birthday with a reminder to his followers to not take the people in their lives for granted.
He advised everyone to reach out to their loved ones today and not to make the assumption that there will always be more time.
"Today was always going to be a tough one. What should be my Brother Ciaran’s Birthday is instead a day to remember he is gone. Gone too soon. Taken from us in the most horrific way," he said.
"There is no easy way in grief, Just a coming to terms with your situation. We have all been left in this limbo without him.
Questioning ourselves and our actions while he was on this earth 'why didn’t we spend more time together, why didn’t we speak more.' F*ck I miss my big brother today and every day since he got on that Green bird to NYC in 1988.
Call your sibling, your parent, your child, your loved one. Don’t put it off don’t think they will be there tomorrow. Because they may not.
My heart hurts today. For everyone that has lost a loved one too soon I feel your pain. I’ll light a candle for you C. Remembering you on your birthday."
While appearing on a Loose Men panel recently, Ronan admitted his family were struggling in the wake of his brother’s untimely death.
He said: “It’s been, it’s been a tough few months dealing with it because it was so quick, so immediate, so fast. Unexpected. We’re still figuring it all out.”
“What we are doing is we’re talking to each other, and we have each other to lean on. That’s really, really important.”
“It’s all about communication, talking about it, but also having somebody who’s going through something that feels the same, that you feel they understand what I’m going through.”
“That’s a big part of it, because a lot of people come up to you on the street and say ‘So sorry to hear about your brother, I lost my dad’ or ‘I lost my mum’ or ‘I lost my brother’,” Ronan continued.
“You know, it’s their way of sharing and trying to be on a level with you and understand.”
“But you’re in your own head, you’re in so much pain, you’re in so much pain. It’s just like ‘You don’t understand. You don’t understand what I’m going through’.”
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