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Trouble had been brewing at the Hennessys’ small estate in Curraghgorm, Co Cork, since early evening.
The two unmarried brothers, Johnny (59) and his older brother Willie (66) still lived there. Patrick (Paddy), a third brother, traveled from his family’s home in Mitchelstown to work there most days, cutting and packing lumber to sell in the community. The three were at the farm that dry day in February, one of the first days of spring.
There was a fight. And while local speculation abounds, the details of the dispute, or what triggered it, have not been revealed. But it was serious enough to cause a flurry of messages and phone calls among the family at large.
According to sources close to the investigation, a relative of the Hennessy brothers was concerned enough to call the Garda police station in Mitchelstown for help.
A source says the concerns centered on Johnny, the youngest of the family. Family members were concerned about his behavior and that someone might get hurt.
Gardaí followed up with a phone call to the Hennessy brothers. It is not clear which or how many siblings they spoke to, but the Gardaí were assured that the situation had calmed down and that there was no need for their intervention on the farm.
“The concerns were raised by a third party, not by any of the brothers,” said a source. “Then Gardaí contacted the brothers and the opinion was that there was no need for anyone to call at that time.”
Gardaí returned the message to the familiar. But if there was relief, it was short-lived.
Paddy (60), who lived with her daughter Elaine, had not come home for dinner, as she used to do. Hours later and in great concern, Elaine drove in the dark down the quiet country roads to the Hennessy farm.
It was after 11 at night when he entered the corral, where he discovered his father’s body, illuminated by the headlights of the car.
Gardaí arrived at the scene shortly before midnight.
The Hennessy brothers may have been dead for hours now.
Paddy lay in the courtyard, his head nearly severed from the wounds he’d sustained and his blood still fresh on the ground.
Willie was found slumped in the shed with multiple horrific injuries to his body.
The scene, according to one garda, was a carnage. Footprints and bloody footprints dotted the ground. Later, forensic crime personnel marked the patterns left by the blood to aid in their analysis of the sequence of events.
Was Paddy hit with the first punch? Had his brother been trying to escape his attacker or had he been surprised by him?
The blood-covered ax lying on the ground left Gardaí with little doubt that it was the murder weapon.
There was also no question about the assailant, although it took an extensive search of the garda and several hours to find him.
John Hennessy’s Toyota Corolla pickup truck was found the next morning, parked at the Killacluig church.
His body was taken out of the Funshion River 5 km from Corraghorm shortly thereafter.
Local people said that on that same river, a fourth Hennessy brother, Jer, took his own life seven years ago.
Once again, a rural farming community in North Cork woke up to the news of a murder-suicide that had nearly wiped out a family that had lived among them for generations.
Five months ago, 55 kilometers away, Tadg O’Sullivan (59) and his son, Diarmuid (23), armed themselves with shotguns and murdered the oldest son, Mark (25), and then took their own lives.
In an act of searing cruelty, the Gardaí believe that they forgave Tadg’s wife, Ann, for which she would be forced to live with the torment of the massacre of her entire family.
That senseless annihilation was attributed to a bitter and fatal dispute over the distribution of a 125-acre family farm in a will.
Gardaí will investigate what caused Johnny Hennessy to beat and beat up the brothers he worked with all his life. According to shocked and horrified neighbors, there was little land or money in the family.
The Hennessy brothers lived honestly and modestly, earning a living on a small 25-acre estate that their late father worked and passed on to them.
His parents, Thomas and Eily Hennessy, raised five children on him: the four boys and his sister, Breda, who is now the last surviving sister. Their father died when they were young, according to a neighbor.
Tragedy has continued to haunt the family.
Of the four siblings, Patrick was the only one who married. He had two children, Elaine and Paudie. In 2012, her son, Paudie (20) took his own life.
Two years later, in January 2014, the body of his uncle, Jer Hennessy, was recovered from the Funshion River.
A neighbor described him as a quiet man and a gentle soul who worked at Cork Marts in Macroom.
Another neighbor said that whenever a farmer jabbed his cattle too harshly or hit him too enthusiastically, Jer would “get mad.” “He loved animals,” said the neighbor.
According to a local acquaintance who saw them regularly, the Hennessys were men who had found it difficult to barely earn a living. They used their hands to put food on the table and “had dirt under their fingernails.”
They were well-built and stocky “sturdy bucks,” he said. In their youth they played handball and excelled as pitchers.
“Hennessy is a great Mitchelstown name and anyone who ever dived for Ballygiblin didn’t flinch,” said another family friend.
“They were the kind of men who would stop the van on the road to let you pass if you were behind them. The ‘Thatchers’ Hennessys were good people who went back to the area. In rural Ireland where you have sneaked families, there are neighbors and friends who go back to previous generations, who are deeply traumatized and saddened by this. Grief has to be handled in a non-traditional way now and we have to try to understand that there is a need and a place for privacy. We have to allow time and space for family and neighbors to deal with this. All people affected by this tragedy must be remembered. “
In later years, the brothers kept quiet. The local landscape has changed, said a local farmer. “There are a lot of new houses built around where they live and they wouldn’t recognize them.”
The farmer recalled how one of the brothers trained a terrier to pull a go-kart, and two of the brothers used to “ride their bikes long before it was popular, all the way to Kilfinnan, cycling on their old bikes.”
They rarely went to the pub. “They never bother anyone,” said the farmer. “That is the truth. They were honest souls. When they passed by the way, you said: ‘one of the saints has gone up'”.
The brothers made their living independently and together. Paddy had worked in the tire business for most of his life, but he also helped out on the farm. In addition to cutting wood, the brothers raised calves and sold bales of hay to local farmers. The neighbor said that they sometimes bought large bales, which they broke and sold individually. They hired work for local farmers.
Kevin O’Keeffe, a former Fianna Fáil TD for Cork East, said the community was shocked by what had happened.
“They were respected, decent and hardworking people,” he said.
“No one can know what happened. Our condolences go out to the Hennessy family.”
Frank Roche, an independent councilman who knew the Hennessys, said: “They were known as ‘the saints’ and that will tell you how honest and decent they were,” he said. “We still don’t know what caused the tragedy, and we don’t know, that’s the curse of the land.”
Locals have speculated on the cause of the tragedy.
The Hennessys were supposed to sell cattle at the mall last Tuesday, according to a local. The sale did not take place and would instead be sold on Tuesday. Some speculated that this may have been the source of the conflict between the brothers. Others speculated that a dispute arose over how to divide the farm between them.
Sources close to the investigation claim to be unaware of the disputes between the brothers. A source close to the investigation said that “there is no dispute that the family is aware of.”
Another said: “There were no real problems with the land, they were living and working together for years on the land. It doesn’t appear to be land. Whatever it is, we don’t know.”
But as one source said, no dispute can justify the carnage John Hennessy unleashed at his home.
Early Thursday night, a garda hung up the phone after speaking with the Hennessy brothers and assured them that everything was fine.
Not long after that phone call, the Gardaí believe, John Hennessy assaulted his brothers with feverish and frenzied aggression.
Post-mortem examinations of the bodies of the three brothers suggest that Paddy and Willie Hennessy suffered catastrophic head injuries.
At a press conference last Friday, Superintendent Liam Geraghty said the Gardaí was not looking for anyone else in connection with the tragedy.
“Gardaí will support the family through this personal tragedy for them,” he said.
“We will have to wait for the autopsy results to determine the nature of the injuries, but at this time we do not anticipate that any firearms were involved.”
Gardaí has recovered the brothers’ mobile phones from the site.
The phones will be screened for relevant text messages and phone calls in the weeks, days and hours leading up to the attack.
However, a critical focus of the investigations will be on John Hennessy’s state of mind in the days leading up to the murders.
Independent Sunday
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