It’s the Will Rover: Hunt starts for Dubliner idol’s last testament

By NEIL COTTER Published: 17th September 2012

A SEARCH has been launched for a will The Dubliner’s legend Barney McKenna may have written — leaving his valuable estate up in the air. Solicitors O’Leary Maher have posted an advert in the Law Society Gazette appealing for help in tracking down whether the great had put pen to paper on his final wishes.

Barney was pre-deceased by his wife Joka and was in a relationship with his partner Tina when he died in April of this year.

He had no children but had a sister Marie and brother Sean Og as well as a large extended family.

The last surviving original member of the band — famous for such songs as Rocky Road to and — had been in poor health in recent years. He owned homes in , Co Dublin, and in Co Meath as well as a fishing trawler. A legal source told the Irish Sun: “In the event of a will never being found it will be treated like he never made one.

“In that case his estate goes to his closest next-of-kin.”

Barney died during the band’s 50th anniversary, and one of his last acts was to get involved in Ireland’s Euro 2012 anthem, The Rocky Road to Poland.

Fiddle player paid tribute to his pal after his death and said he had been overwhelmed with messages of sympathy from fans. He said: “Everybody is going to miss him hugely.”

In the ad in this month’s Law Society Gazette, the solicitors said they were seeking information from anyone who knows the whereabouts of a will.