Andy McEntee has bravely opened up on his brother's death almost 10 years ago.
Shane McEntee, father of Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, was Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture when he was found dead at his house in Castletown two days after his 56th birthday and four days before Christmas in 2012. His funeral took place on Christmas Eve.
Andy, who stepped down as Meath football boss earlier this month, had been out for lunch with his brother the day before his death.
The inquest into the Fine Gael TD’s death at Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, heard that he died as a result of asphyxiation by ligature at his Co Meath home.
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Andy told the BBC's GAA Social: "You never really know. I was at lunch with him the day before [he died]. Myself and Catherine my wife and Shane and Kathleen.
"Catherine and Shane's birthdays were close enough together so we got into the habit of going to lunch around about that time.
"When Tony rang me the morning that Shane died I knew straight away [that he was dead]. He didn't have to say anything."
When asked how he knew, the former Meath boss continued: "He was in bad form. He was in bad form.
"I knew and I remember saying it to him that he was in bad form and he didn't want to talk about it."
He added: "It's hard to know. I mean it really is hard to know but I don't think we'll ever get to the real bottom of it.
"He had a lot of huge positives in his life - a fantastic family, doing a job that he seemed to really like to be Minister for Agriculture coming from a farming background and the political background that my family has come from.
"It was a huge honour. Everybody was so proud of him. You just never know what's going through people's heads but a lot of the stuff that goes round surely has an impact somewhere along the line."
Shane's daughter Helen won his seat in by-election in 2013 to become the youngest female TD in the Dail.
Speaking to former President Mary McAleese for RTÉ series All Walks of Life in 2020 about her father's death and the election campaign, she said: “I think the election itself was – I wouldn’t say a haze – but I decided quite quickly that that’s what I wanted to do. It wasn’t forced upon me.
"I just knew before anyone even asked me that’s what I wanted to do.
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“The election was hard because you are meeting people and they are telling you stories but as time went on I actually found it very comforting.
“It was probably a challenge because it was so soon afterwards.
“We all talk about him a bit and we have our moments and I know I could certainly talk about him for hours and hours and be absolutely fine and then another day I could think of him and tears will start welling
"I think it’s more difficult for some people to talk about when they have lost a loved one particularly when its suicide. For me, I like to talk about him."
When asked if it bothered her that some people might say her father gave up on life, she added: “I don’t see it that way at all because he’s someone who loved life and that moment, whatever happened, was overwhelming.
“That’s the challenge for us – if he had got over that moment where would we be now?
“He loved life, he loved people, he loved celebrations. I wouldn’t for a second want him to be remembered for anything other than that.”
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