By Jenny McCourt

Early Years

Sean was born in Wallasey Hospital, just across the Mersey from Liverpool, UK on 11th January 1962. He was the first born to his parents (Sean Joseph McCourt) and Joyce McCourt nee Parsons) who went on to have 4 other children: the first two in England and the second two in Ireland. Maria (1963), Sarah (1964), Joyce (stillborn 1966) and Eadaoin (1968).

The McCourt family spent the first 12 years of Sean’s life moving backwards and forwards between England and Ireland, as his father was Irish (born in Armagh) and his mother was English (born in Lincolnshire). The happiest memories he had of his early years there, were living in Grantham, where he was very close to his maternal grandmother and grandfather: Kathleen and Thomas Parsons, and his Uncles John and Tony. His fondest memories of his time at “Willowmead” in Grantham, his grandparents house - was playing and helping his grandfather in their enormous garden. In Ireland, there was a lot of Aunts, Uncles and cousins as his father was the eldest boy in a family of 13 (11 sisters and 1 other brother). But apart from scattered memories of some cousins, they did not get to stay in one place long enough to form close relationships with any of them.

In early 1975, Sean’s father, (Sean Snr) moved to Australia on his own, chasing the promise of a new job. Joyce was left behind with 4 children under the age of 13 to pack up and sell off the family home, and follow him to Melbourne 6 months later in June 1975. The job was not there on his arrival, so a kindly stranger by the name of Mr Hales, took Sean Snr to his family home, and helped him until he got on his feet with a job, and found a rental property in Bentleigh. Sean Snr and Joyce later bought a home at 2 Montreal St., Bentleigh, where Sean and his family grew up until they all left home. Sean Snr and Joyce later sold this and moved to Elizabeth Drive, Rosebud in 2001.

Education

In his primary school years, Sean attended many different schools in England and Ireland. In Ireland, his teachers used to always wonder why he was so late for school every morning. Joyce was surprised, as she sent him off to walk to school on his own in plenty of time. She followed him one day, to find him dreamily staring at all the cows in the paddocks and singing songs to himself.

On their arrival in Melbourne, Sean was sent to the local Catholic Christian Brothers College. He later recalls the teacher priests being “sadistic mongrels” who took pleasure in beating the boys with canes at any provocation. Sean was lucky, that at aged 13-14, he was already nearly 6 ft tall with a big build and enormous hands, so he guessed that they did not try to do too much to him. Things were not much better on the home front, as there was nearly as much violence at home. He and his sisters would often talk in later years about them being locked in the garage, beaten with hairbrushes, and Sean himself would run away from home and sleep in bus shelters, or under the house with his beloved pet dogs to escape his father’s unpredictable temper.

Nevertheless, he hated school so much that he wagged at any and every opportunity, and begged his parents to let him attend Moorabbin Technical School instead. They relented, and even though he continued to wag school, he made a friend for life in Gregg Humphreys, excelled in sport: water polo and soccer, and did a little better at his schooling. He left school in the middle of year 10, and got various factory jobs, work as personal care attendant, and helped out with his sister Maria’s and father Sean Snrs own businesses until he found his niche in IT in later years. At one stage he was largely unemployed for 10 years, between 1989-1999 during the slump of the 1980s.

He began work as a trainee at BEST Inc (a workplace training facility) in June of 1999. He took to the computer department like a duck to water, and within 12 months, had exceeded the knowledge of his mentor, and was given the position of running it. He studied and got his Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator qualification. Unfortunately, the company went into receivership in 2003, and Sean was again out of work.

Relationships, Marriage and Family

He met Jenny at the Church of the Open Door in Mentone, in January 1984 after his friend Gregg, had convinced him to come along. At this time, he had also left home and started renting with friends. His parents had not approved of him changing his religion from Catholicism, and in his words had “thrown him out” after bringing priests home to try to convince him to return to being a Catholic. He refused, and from then on called himself a Christian, and did his utmost to follow a better path. His upbringing had bought many challenges, depression and anxiety plagued him, and affected his behaviour on many levels. Counselling improved his life somewhat, but he never quite shook off the “black dog”.

He and Jenny began dating in April 1984, engaged in November 1986 and married on 14th September 1991, and had three children, Erin (1999), Cara (2002) and Ryan (2004).

Physical Characteristics and Medical History

Sean was a solid man: 6 ft tall, with a muscular and heavy set build. He battled with depression and his weight for many years, at one stage topping the scales at 153kg.

He had depression, anxiety and the associated weight issues for most of his life. He developed Type 2 diabetes in the late 90s, and was diagnosed with Acute B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia on 6th March 2009. The fight against this aggressive leukaemia was a horrible time, and ultimately killed him on 23rd February 2010, only 11 months later. Jenny, his children, best friend Gregg, mother Joyce, sisters: Eadaoin, Maria and Sarah, his nephews - Matthew, Kieren and Jordan, and church friends John Baker and Martin Rogers were in attendance to say farewell.

He was 48 years old at the time of his death, leaving behind his wife Jenny (45), and children Erin (10), Cara (7) and Ryan (5). Ryan had just started primary school 3 weeks before his fathers death.