Riddle of nudist hermit found dead after living alone in a remote Irish mountain range for more than 20 YEARS
71-year-old was found dead in the Glenmalure Hills in the Wicklow mountains, Ireland and is now the subject of an RTE documentary
THIS is a mysterious nudist who lived alone in the Wicklow mountains, Ireland, for more than 20 years.
Peter O’Neill was 71 when he was discovered dead at his remote dwelling in the Glenmalure Hills, where he had spent the past two decades.
He’d been dead for several months when he was finally found after a local hotel reported he had not come to collect his post in a while.
With no friends or family, little is known about the English-accented man called Peter — or indeed if that was his real name.
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A new RTE documentary, which airs tonight, explores who Peter was and asks why he went to such lengths to avoid human company.
As well as spending much of his time nude, herbalist Peter claimed he had moved to the wilderness as a last resort.
Retired Garda Richard Galvin said: “I used to visit him here. He was some kind of loner or hermit.
“He had built a hut where an old ruin once existed in the middle of the forest. When you would arrive, you would think nobody was home.
“You got the feeling you were under observation. You could stand for five or ten minutes when out of the bushes, he would suddenly appear.
“He was a wild-looking character really but he was clean-shaven, his hair was as if he cut it himself. He was complaining he had been hunted out of everywhere.”
After his death, his nearest neighbours Maura and Michael Heffernan put most of his belongings in their shed so that they are there for any family members who may one day come looking for him.
He left behind hundreds of letters and books, all of which were accompanied by complex scribbles and writings — suggesting he was attempting to find some common thread between different readings.
Father Oliver Crotty, a parish priest in the area, said: “He had questions of a religious nature that he was trying to suss out.
“I don’t know what faith he was, if any, and I hope it wouldn’t change my relationship with him. I was amazed at the sheer scale of his knowledge.”
Local Garda Shane Barker found Peter’s body on May 8, 2015, after being told by Glenmalure Lodge staff he hadn’t been seen for a while. His last diary entry was for January 18.
Local Church of Ireland and Catholic priests officiated his funeral, which was attended by some locals.
Richard Galvin said: “Some locals turned up at the funeral as they would any neighbour, they helped carry the coffin and lower the coffin. It was funny we were mourning someone we knew but never knew.”
Interestingly, Peter is not the only person living in such a way in Ireland. And priest Fr Crotty reckons that perhaps these people who have detached themselves from society are worth paying attention to.
He said: “There are 37 other such men living in forests around Ireland. Maybe they are people we should be looking at and listening to, maybe they’re telling us something very profound about the need to be in touch with our world and our environment.
“To that extent I’d look up to him and say, ‘well done’.”
WOULD You Believe? airs on RTE1 Sunday night at 10.15.
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