29 Aug

goodbye Andy

bollox

During my late teens and early twenties, I lived in a series of houses with Andrew Niland. We went to the same bars, had the same friends, and were into the same things (computers, body modification, “banned” films, industrial music).

In fact, I ended up going out with and eventually marrying his ex-girlfriend, Bronwyn, after living in the same house as the two of them for more than two years.

Andy was always into piercing, and spent a lot of time at Glen’s piercing parlour, learning from him.

After learning enough from him and experimenting enough that he was confident in his abilities (it didn’t take long; Andy was always brilliant, and very quick at learning what he was interested in), Andy left Ireland and went to Canada, where he ended up working for the Sacred Art tattoo parlour in North Bay, Ontario.

By that time, we’d lost touch with each other over after an argument where we all ended up moving house (we drank a lot, were young, and seriously, don’t go out with your best friend’s ex-girlfriend while living in the same house as him because that’s a recipe for disaster).

Andy had been in court in Ontario over a really stupid law which claims that some body modification is ok, but others should be regarded as “aggravated assault”, even though it’s all done consensually.

A few weeks ago, he vanished. On August 4th, he was last seen at 6.30pm. When he was missing for a while, his apartment was searched and it was found that he’d left his wallet there. A lot of fuss was made over this online, but this was not unusual for Andy.

The police searched for him for a while, and a Facebook group kept all of us uptodate.

Yesterday, Andy was found. The police won’t confirm it’s him, but how you could not identify a guy who has distinctive piercings and huge stars tattooed on his forehead, is beyond me. Besides, people close to him have confirmed it’s him.

An autopsy is to be held on Monday. At the best, this was a camping accident. At the worst, it was murder. We’ll have to wait and see.

Update (Sep 2): Police in North Bay have said that “there is no foul play suspected“. As usual with police, they have not offered any of the other pieces of information which people would really like to know, like “what actually happened?”.

12 thoughts on “goodbye Andy

  1. Thanks Steve. We’re going to hold a remembrance night in Dublin in November for him. All the old friends will be back together.

    I’ll check her database later today. I upgraded it only a few weeks ago, so they probably slipped in before that.

  2. Hi Kae,

    When is the rememberance night?

    Youi probably wont remember me but i was a friend of Andy’s , i used to always see you at Andy Murrays house parties, you and Andy N kept everyone entertained : )
    Found a few nice pics of him last night. Myself, Sav , Matt, kev etc ..would like to go to the rememberance so give me a shout if you find anything more.

  3. Leanne, November 13th. More details here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154728214277

    Yeah, I remember you lot, but only barely! I was totally pissed most of the time, so it’s surprising I remember /myself/ being there!

    Andy Murray’s parents rock – allowing such all-consuming parties were such an allowance to make! IIRC, Ady Niland and myself used to do side-show tricks at it – skewer through face, face in glass, eating glass, fire-eating and the like. Fun times!

  4. What can be said. This is bloody disasterous news. Andy was one of the nicest guys I ever met here and on of the few who could handle my irreverent humour. RIP my good friend ๐Ÿ™

  5. Sav here
    I found out 3 nights ago by Darren Fahy. I lost track of Andy about 4 years ago when myspace deleted his account for the second time and he decided he was never using myspace again.
    Ill miss him. I always thought id get to meet up with him again. Oh and last time i seen you Kae you were giving out because i was making too much noise while watching the wrestling with Andy hahahahaha you remember that?

  6. Glens right though, sense i found out about Andy i cant get the sick feeling out of the pit of my stomach, Please id like to attent the rememberance night. Andy is now offically a Legend.

  7. Haha yea that sounds about right, i actually found some good pics from the parties . A few of him and Claire Rush.

    yea his parents where great, they used to just chill out with everyone , he had a party nearly every second week ๐Ÿ™‚

    Hey Sav! long time no see ๐Ÿ™‚ hope your keeping well, look forward to all the old crew getting together, shame this is what it took though ๐Ÿ™

    Any idea on when the autopsy is coming back Kae?

    x

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