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Another quiet day in another country town, or so it seemed, but on Friday morning, Mitchelstown in North Cork woke up to find that too, like Kanturk a few months ago, was about to be catapulted into national headlines due to a horrible murder suicide.
Just as the people in Kanturk shook their heads in disbelief when they learned that Tadg O’Sullivan and his son Diarmuid had killed their other son Mark in their quiet country home on October 26, so the people of Mitchelstown were also perplexed. on your own. tragedy.
Brothers Willie, Paddy and Johnny Hennessy were well known in Mitchelstown. Willie lived alone in a house in Stag Park while Paddy, who was separated, alternated between living with his daughter, Elaine (30), at their home in Linden Hill and her partner, Kitty Russell, in the town of Tipperary.
The youngest of the three, Johnny, lived at the hometown, the single-story farm and 25-acre estate in Curraghgorm, three miles from Mitchelstown. It was where the three brothers grew up with their brothers, Jerry and Breda, and where the tragedy began to unfold.
Paddy (60) and Willie (66) were found dead, apparently attacked by Johnny (59), whose body was later recovered from the nearby Funcheon River.
Local Fine Gael Councilor Kate Dawson spoke about the sense of disbelief that engulfed Mitchelstown when news of the tragedy broke around 7:30 a.m., and people called their neighbors to tell them the news.
“They were well known in the community and well regarded, they were just like anyone else and that’s why it was so shocking. It hasn’t been assimilated yet, you know how when you hear the news and it’s somewhere else, but today, unfortunately, is the worst news that could have happened in Mitchelstown.
“It is as if something happens from outside of us. There are no words to describe what happened. Your head keeps going through that, saying: Did it really happen? My heart goes out to his family because they are our own people ”.
Tragedy
Not that the shocking event was the first or only tragedy to befall the Hennessy family. In 2012, Paddy’s son Paudie took his own life at age 21, while two years later the Hennessy’s other brother, Jerry, who worked at Cork Marts, also committed suicide at 57.
The four brothers were well known in the community, playing handball in Mitchelstown from a young age and then playing for the local Ballygiblin club in the 1970s and 1980s, including in 1979 when they were part of a team that won a North American championship. Cork.
A former teammate said: “I pitched with all four guys. They were great, laid-back guys. I would call them old guys with old-fashioned values who lived a very simple life, so this is totally unexpected and very difficult for people who were left behind. “
A Garda forensic team watches as a hearse leaves the Mitchelstown farm onto Mallow Road on the outskirts of Kildorrery, Co Cork, carrying the remains of two brothers discovered on nearby farmland. Photograph: Daragh McSweeney / Provision
Former Fianna Fáil Cork East TD Ned O’Keeffe said he was saddened to learn of the three siblings’ deaths as he knew them all by calling their home a couple of times a year to help them access various services when they worked in the Dáil.
“They were like many families in both rural and urban Ireland. They had very marginal lands and they were a kind of marginalized family; they often needed help. They would never come to my clinic, but I used to call them from time to time. I was very sorry to hear of his passing. “
Selling hay
Another man, who knew them well but did not want to be identified, recalled that Paddy had worked at Suttons Fuels in Mitchelstown for years until it closed, and later worked at JD Tires in town, while Willie and John used to deliver lumber at the same time. who sells hay to farmers.
“They were the type of fellows who had only one car, one of them was driving and bringing the rest. Johnny used to stop by the Ramble Inn in Mitchelstown for a bite and a pint, but none of them were drunk and I never saw one drunk in my life.
The farm, located in Mitchelstown to Mallow Road on the outskirts of Kildorrery, Co Cork, where the bodies of the two brothers were discovered. The body of a third man was found in a nearby river. Photograph: Daragh Mc Sweeney / Provision
“Paddy used to work at JD Tires and Willie and Johnny worked on the farm. They could buy some round bales of hay and repack them into little square bales and sell them, and they also used to sell firewood. The country house was very basic and the men themselves were very basic too.
“I know people wonder what started it all, was it a dispute over the farm? I highly doubt there is too much enthusiasm for the farm. Now I know that they no longer make soil, but that place is only a swamp and, among reeds, gorse and bushes, it only serves to plant it.
“I don’t know what caused things. What would the 60-year-old classmates be arguing about? Unless it was these Covid times when the companions have nowhere to go and who knows what the confinement could be doing to raise the heads of the companions. We may never know, but it is tremendously sad. “
If you are affected by any issues in this article, please contact Pieta House at 1800-247247 or the Samaritans by calling 116123 (toll free) or emailing [email protected]
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