THE body of a North Belfast man who died over two weeks ago in Spain is to finally come home today.
However, a short time later his body was discovered by two holidaymakers who pulled him from the pool. Despite efforts by paramedics, Mr McAleenan could not be saved.
A GoFundMe page, set up by neighbour Anne Aicken has raised £14,815 at the time of writing.
Since his tragic passing, fiancé Maeve Kelly and other close family members have encountered delay after delay with the Spanish authorities in releasing Sean's body.
Maeve is due back in Belfast later on Friday and says the grieving process can begin when she is re-united with her three children.
Speaking to the North Belfast News, Maeve said: "After a lot more stress and pressure being applied from the Irish Embassy our appeal was granted.
"Sean was then legally allowed to be prepared to travel home to Ireland. We started our journey on Thursday and went to Barcelona where we then flew to London and stayed overnight and are flying back today with Aer Lingus from London to Belfast.
"It will have been a 25-hour journey to repatriate Sean and it was either that or wait for flights next week which I refused.
"Once again the GoFundMe was invaluable as we had to meet all of the costs involved in getting home."
Maeve said funeral arrangements will be made public by O'Kane's Funeral Directors in the coming days.
"The interest in the story is just a measure of how much Sean was loved and was such a big character.
"I now need to be reunited with my three children and we need to begin the real grieving process for our beautiful Sean."
