Chapter 11: Worsening Mental Health

JJ Muggivan

Brendan’s assault on Ann Marie and her baby is the most significant milestone on his journey. It represents a dramatic turning point in his life. He had shown signs for some time of being extremely paranoid, but now there could be little doubt about what had become his primary mental-health disorder. He had Delusional Disorder, Paranoid Type. Having paranoid ideation, as diagnosed by Ballinasloe Hospital, is much less severe and might not have made him as dangerous. He was now clearly dangerous and, if the circumstances were right, he could kill. Clearly the diagnosis made by Dr Smith and Dr O’Neill in 1988-90 was correct. They referred to delusions and psychosis without being specific as to what type. Brendan left Ballinasloe Hospital a dangerous man for two reasons. Firstly, he had a mental-health disorder that had brought him to the point of killing his sister and her baby. Secondly, he left the hospital with additional reasons to run from the authorities. He had just committed another crime — the assault on Ann Marie and her baby. The assault on his sister and baby, and the decision of Ballinasloe Hospital to release him, are the starting points of the journey which led directly to the deaths of Imelda Riney, her child, and Fr Walsh — and ultimately, to Brendan’s own death. Ironically, Ballinasloe Hospital came very close to a correct diagnosis. ‘Paranoid ideation’ is similar to Paranoid Delusional Disorder, but is less serious and does not make the individual as dangerous. Paranoid ideation is defined as follows: [I]deation, of less than delusional proportions, involving suspiciousness or the belief that one is being harassed, persecuted, or unfairly treated. (DSM-IV-TR, p. 826)

Brendan’s story so far shows that he clearly suffered from paranoia for most of his life. He had particular paranoia about being poisoned by germs in food. He may have had this fear as early as one of his first visits to a doctor when he was four or five years of age, when he said that he was seeing animals in his food. His appetite became so poor at that stage that he was given medication to help him to eat. He remained obsessed with germs: he wouldn’t eat in certain houses; he would check dishes and cups

before using them, and would clean them himself.

He was so paranoid about germs on dishes and in food that he annoyed Tony’s sons with his finickiness. The incident of Brendan Muggivan wiping the floor with a slice of bread and eating it to demonstrate that it wouldn’t poison him was a challenge, not to ‘paranoid ideation’ but to a ‘paranoid belief’.

The assault on Ann Marie having demonstrated that Brendan at this point had full-blown Paranoid Delusional Disorder, this is a good time to describe and explain what that is.

‘Paranoid ideation’, as diagnosed in Ballinasloe Psychiatric Hospital, can cause an individual to act against people whom they believe are perpetrating harassment, persecution, or unfair treatment against them. But they usually do not act with the same intensity or consistency as an individual with Delusional Disorder, Persecutory Type. They will rarely attempt to kill someone based on an erroneous ideation. A paranoid delusion is different. It makes the individual much more dangerous.

A delusion, as opposed to ideation, is a false belief someone has formed, based on an incorrect assessment of a situation. The person with the belief holds to it strongly, in spite of what almost everyone else believes and in spite of any absolute proof that might show that the belief is false. When such a belief involves a very extreme and incredible value judgement, it is regarded as delusional.

A persecutory or paranoid delusion is when:

... the central theme of the delusion involves the person’s belief that he or she is being conspired against, cheated, spied on, followed, poisoned [emphasis added], or drugged, maliciously maligned, harassed, or obstructed in the pursuit of long-term goals. (DSM-IV-TR, p. 325) In the case of a paranoid delusion, a person will exaggerate small slights, seeing them as injustices that should be remedied. Individuals with persecutory delusions are often resentful and angry and may resort to violence against those they believe are hurting them. (Ibid., p. 325)

All of the above describes Brendan O’Donnell. Throughout his life, one of the beliefs that frightened Brendan was that he was being poisoned. This fear eventually made him dangerous, bringing him to the stage where he could have killed his sister. His sister warded off one attack and demonstrated that it wouldn’t be easy to kill her with a knife. When Brendan got his hands on an axe, she had already escaped from her bedroom.

It was one of his delusional beliefs that kept Brendan’s ‘fight’ and ‘flight’ response to danger constantly active. His avoidance of food was his ‘flight’ response. He was ready to kill as his ‘fight’ response became more active.

Can stressful events or stressful circumstances make the symptoms of Paranoid Delusional Disorder worse? Can stressful events or circumstances push an individual with ‘paranoid ideation’ over the edge to Paranoid Delusional Disorder?

I believe the answer is yes. In the months before the assault on Ann Marie, Brendan had several stressful experiences. He had witnessed his friend’s drowning. He had been arrested in England and was running from the law.

He was rejected by his father and put out of his home after returning from England. He saw his family in confusion about where he could or should live. The night he was put out of his father’s home, Brendan kicked his father on the shins in anger at the rejection.

All of the foregoing happened to a young man who already had chronic mental-health disorders. Even if he did not have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for most of his life, he was exposed toa belief system most of his life which saw the world as dangerous.

Because of all the hurt he suffered, whether by accident or human design, it is not surprising that he could have developed a dominant belief that he was being ‘conspired against, cheated,

spied on, followed, poisoned, or drugged, maliciously maligned, harassed, or obstructed in the pursuit of long-term goals’.

Brendan had only one goal in life and that was to survive the dangers he felt were all around him. Sometimes the dangers he felt were real, such as the danger of being raped or beaten in state institutions; such as not getting mental-health treatment; such as his mother dying by her own hands, and so on.

In attempting to run from dangers, imagined and real, he would usually create additional real problems for himself. He would run from court dates, steal cars to get away, break into houses, destroy the cars he stole to hide signs of his involvement, and so on.

Understanding his state of mind makes it possible to understand his behaviour. Understanding his beliefs and fears and their connection to his behaviour is as simple as understanding that his fear of green men in his bedroom caused him to want to sleep with his mother or sister for safety and protection.

Until now I have explained Brendan’s ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ behaviour. However, there was another feature of his delusional disorder that does not explain adequately all of his violent behaviour. He sometimes assaulted people when he was not trying to ‘flee’ danger or ‘fight’ people whom he felt were dangerous to him.

The assault on Willie Keane and the assault on the workman in Whitegate are examples. When Brendan found out that Tony had helped the guards in their failed attempt to arrest him, he later threatened Tony on the phone that he would ‘get’ someone close to him. People were scared of him because they believed he would take revenge if they didn’t try to appease him. People were scared not to pick him up whenever he was on the road hitch-hiking.

In other words, he was dangerously vindictive and capable of seeking revenge against those he believed had harmed him or would harm him. The guidelines for identifying persecutory delusions describe Brendan so well they could have been written for him: Individuals with persecutory delusions are often resentful and angry and may resort to violence against those they believe are hurting them [emphasis added]. (DSM-IV-TR, p. 325)

Should an individual with full-blown, untreated Paranoid Delusional Disorder, severe and chronic, be determined to be fit to stand trial for his actions as one who is legally sane? It is a difficult

disorder on which to make a determination because many with the disorder can appear sane much, or even most, of the time. DSM-IV-TR addresses this point:

[With Delusional Disorder] Psychosocial functioning is variable. Some individuals may appear to be relatively unimpaired in their interpersonal and occupational roles. In others, the impairment may be substantial and include low or absent occupational functioning. When poor psychosocial functioning is present in Delusional Disorder, it arises directly from the delusional beliefs themselves. (DSM-IV-TR, p. 324)

This point will be addressed again since by the time of his trial Brendan had more serious problems than Delusional Disorder — or any of the other disorders he had had throughout his life.

Shortly after his release from Ballinasloe Hospital and before his trial date in Portumna, scheduled for sometime at the end of 1993, for the several incidents which had taken place throughout 1992, Brendan O’Donnell left for England again.

Margaret Maher, Fr Joseph Walsh’s sister, reported that Brendan broke into the curate’s house in Eyrecourt in about March of 1993 and stole one of her brother’s suits. It was reported that he left for England dressed as a priest.

Not long after arriving in England, Brendan was arrested for the handbag theft he had committed when he was there previously. He was tried for the incident, and sentenced to one year in prison.

He spent the next year, March 1993 to March 1994, either in prison or in hospital in England, apparently in Wolverhampton or somewhere nearby. Medical reports from the prison ‘showed

concern about Mr O’Donnell’s mental state’ (The Irish Times, 15 March 1996, Testimony of Dr Turrall, Psychologist).

In the late summer of 1993, Tony met Imelda Riney on the road outside Son O’Donnell’s house in Whitegate, and near where she lived. She pulled up in her car and started a conversation. She had two children with her in the car. She asked Tony for slates to fix the roof of the house where she was living.

She had bought the house but it needed a lot of repairs. Its owner, Willie Gleeson, had recently died. Tony knew that Brendan had stayed in this house off and on for a number of years and before his move to the apartment in Portumna.

The slates were in Son O’Donnell’s yard. Son O’Donnell was Brendan’s grand-uncle. Imelda Riney had previously asked Son O’Donnell about the slates and he had referred her to Tony. Tony now told her that she could have whatever number of slates she needed.

During the conversation, she began talking to Tony about Brendan, commenting on what a nice boy he was. From the manner in which she was talking, and the details she seemed to know about his life, it was clear to Tony that she must have had fairly extensive conversations with him and about him. She probably would also have heard much about him from Son O’Donnell.

She mentioned to Tony that Brendan had told her that Tony was the only one willing to help him with all of his difficulties. Tony felt she spoke caringly of him. He did not answer her in any great detail as he did not, at this time, have the same opinions of Brendan as she seemed to believe he had.

He recalled a conversation he had had with Brendan the previous year, 1992, during which Brendan had talked about meeting a particular woman, with two small children, at the Health Centre in Scariff. He recalled Brendan telling him that the woman with the children had admired the sweater Mary had bought for him after he first came to his home.

From things Imelda Riney said about Brendan, Tony realised that she was the woman Brendan had talked to him about. At the time, he had wondered if Brendan had developed an interest in this woman. He even wondered if he had a fantasy about asking her to marry him and if this was his reason for asking for a plot of ground. He had told Brendan that she was not for him and he had never heard Brendan speak of her again.

Imelda Riney was well liked by the locals and was seen as a caring mother to her children. She regularly stopped in to see Brendan’s grand-uncle on her way to Whitegate village for groceries, and she would ask him if he wanted anything from the shop.

When she was later reported missing, Son O’Donnell took her loss very hard and, indeed, her death and the deaths of the other victims, may have hastened his own. He died very shortly after the killings. Many of his relatives and many locals believe that he was another victim of the tragic events.

For Imelda Riney to show signs that she might care enough to befriend Brendan could be dangerous as far as Tony was concerned. He recalls worrying about the possibility of there being a friendship between them. However, as far as he knew, at the time of this conversation, Brendan was in jail in England, so he gave no more thought to his worries until after the events of April/May 1994.