Sydney - An Irishman brought home to die after being beaten senseless on a Sydney street in August has surprised his doctors and his family by coming back from the dead in a Cork hospital on St Patrick's Day. David Keohane, 29, came out of a coma eight months after sustaining serious head injuries in the attack, news reports said Monday.

"He's awake, he's talking, he's recognising everyone," a family friend told Irish newspaper the Evening Herald. "He was looking at pictures and he could tell who everyone was, which was amazing."

Keohane's family ascribe his miraculous recovery to daily prayers they offered to nun Mary MacKillop and said they would be writing to Pope Benedict XVI to expedite her sainthood.

The Sydney nun was beatified after the Vatican recognized one miracle in her name. Two miracles are needed for sainthood.

Saint Patrick's Day, the feast day of one of the patron saints of Irelan, is celebrated on March 17.

Three people have been charged with assault over the attack and a fourth. (dpa)