Chapter 13: Looking for Help

JJ Muggivan

The following is a reconstruction of Brendan’s movements, based on trial testimony, published reports and interviews.

It may have been under Imelda Riney’s persuasion that Brendan decided to make contact with the Muggivans. He walked from Cregg Wood to Muggivans’ not long after making

contact with Imelda Riney.

He found Brendan Muggivan and Vera O’Sullivan, Brendan Muggivan’s maternal aunt, at the house. Brendan Muggivan and Vera were busy with the evening chores and were very cool to him. They gave him little encouragement to stay. They were both watchful and nervous, and they noticed that Brendan was too. He asked them where Tony and Mary were and they told him that they were in Germany.

Brendan Muggivan asked him where he was staying, and he said he was staying over in Cregg in a tent.

He asked for food and Brendan prepared some hot dogs for him. Brendan O’Donnell sarcastically asked if that was the best he could do. Brendan Muggivan told him that that was all he was going to get. Later, he asked to be driven back to Cregg Forest.

Brendan Muggivan was nervous at having Brendan around and, because he could not leave him alone, was glad to hear he wanted to leave. He reluctantly agreed to drive him, remembering his father’s warning never to be alone with him in a car. He decided the risk was worth it, however, in order to have him leave. He knew that he could not leave him alone in the house while he completed his chores.

Brendan Muggivan believed he was taking a serious risk by driving Brendan O’Donnell to Cregg Wood but he did not like the alternatives of having him stay longer at the house or become angry. Both young men were quiet during the four-mile trip to Cregg Wood.

It is not known if, at this time, Brendan was in possession of the single shot .22 rifle and the large quantity of ammunition that he stole from Ned Jameson in Whitegate.

Brendan Muggivan drove to Cregg Cross but Brendan O’Donnell wanted to be driven into the wood. Brendan Muggivan refused to go further and told Brendan that he would have to walk the

rest of the way. He gave the excuse that he was in a hurry home to finish the evening chores. He said goodnight and drove home.

On Thursday evening, 28 April, the evening preceding the abduction of Imelda Riney and her child, Brendan got a lift from Limerick with Maudie Nash. He told her that his ‘fucking head was not too good’, and she was nervous of him. On his return to Mountshannon, he again came to the Muggivans’. This time, he was met by Brendan Muggivan, Vera O’Sullivan, and her future husband, Joe O’Rourke.

He again asked when Tony and Mary would be returning from Germany. They told him that they would not be back for at least another week.

All three made sure to have Brendan under constant observation as he was acting very suspiciously. They continued to believe he wanted to get his hands on the automatic shotgun.

After staying for a while, he again asked to be driven to Cregg Forest. This time, Brendan Muggivan refused to drive him, remembering the fear he had felt on the previous occasion.

After the events of the weekend, locals reported that, at this time, Brendan had already stolen the single shot .22 rifle and a large quantity of ammunition. Mrs Brady said that she met him on Thursday evening and that he had a rifle or a shotgun inside his overcoat.

It was still Thursday night, 28 April 1994. Brendan left Muggivans’ very angry. He walked down the road from Derrycon towards Mountshannon village.

About a quarter of a mile down the road, he stopped at Frank Muggivan’s. Frank Muggivan, another brother of mine, lived in a mobile home near the side of the road.

Frank put on the kettle to make some tea and, to make conversation, asked Brendan what he had been doing since he had seen him last, and when he had come back to the area. Brendan talked little but was agitated and disorganised. He appeared frightened and worried.

During the conversation, he stated that he was planning on going abroad shortly — that he was not going to be spending much time in the area. Around Mountshannon, the expression ‘going abroad’ usually means going some place other than England. The expression is most often used when someone is planning on going to the Continent.

Frank did not see any sign of a gun on Brendan. As both men were talking, waiting for the kettle to boil, they heard a car driving up the road from the direction of Mountshannon. They saw the headlights through the window. Suddenly, the car turned into the yard. It was moving fast and, when it came into the yard, it hit a bicycle standing against a fence. Frank went outside to see what the commotion was.

It was a squad car with two guards. Both guards got out of the car and Frank greeted them. He had just spoken to the guards when Brendan leapt out the door behind him, shouting at the guards to back off. He had his right hand in his coat pocket as if holding a handgun.

The suddenness of Brendan’s appearance, his shout, his demeanour, and the signs that he had a gun, startled Frank and caused the guards to jump backwards. Brendan immediately ran across the road and into a field.

The guards did not pursue. They were unarmed.

When the guards left, Frank turned off the kettle and started walking up the road to Tony’s house. This was the last known contact anyone had with Brendan before the abduction of Imelda Riney and her child the following morning.

There are no live witnesses who can report conversations with Brendan from about ten o’clock on Thursday night, 28 April, to about 3.30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, 30 April. We have only sketchy accounts of his movements, and knowledge about where he had to have been, based on the trail of evidence he left.

We have his testimony — the testimony he gave immediately after he was captured is probably the most reliable. The testimony he gave at the trial is not as reliable for two reasons. Firstly, he wanted to convince the jury that he was insane, so he had to embellish his motivation for his actions. Secondly, by the time of the trial, he probably had new brain injuries from his medicine, and it is very likely that his memory and intellectual functioning were even more severely impaired.

This makes it necessary to construct some stages of this account from known facts, his testimony, and the events that happened. This construction starts with Brendan leaving Derrycon on

Thursday night and continues until he arrives in Eyrecourt on Saturday afternoon. I believe the following is reliable and substantially accurate.

Brendan began his walk back to Cregg Wood. The guards drove down to the village of Mountshannon at pubclosing time.

The publican got angry at the guards and told them that they would be serving the people better if they were out trying to capture Brendan O’Donnell. He said that if they knew how to do their jobs, they would be up in Derrycon, checking to see if one of the Muggivans was hiding O’Donnell from the law.

The guards left the bar angry, and drove back to Derrycon. They overtook Frank on the road as he walked up to Tony’s house. They again confronted him but this time they were belligerent.

Meanwhile, Brendan’s mind was in turmoil. His fears were now intensified. He had just encountered two guards who he believed were already searching for him. He believed it was known that he had jumped probation in England.

He knew that the guards would still want him for having run away from his court date in Portumna for his assault on his sister and her baby. He also knew that they would want to question him about the theft of the car he had stolen a couple of weeks earlier.

He walked down the road towards Mountshannon as soon as he saw the guards leaving Frank Muggivan’s. He was ready to jump into a field at the first appearance of a car — either the sound of acar or the lights. At the bridge, halfway to Mountshannon, he took a left turn and walked up Dinan’s Road, planning to journey to Cregg Forest by the back roads.

His mind had been racing for weeks, worsening every day. He now had to have a plan. He had to have a plan that could be put into effect as soon as possible. He could not stay another day in the Mountshannon, Whitegate, or Eyrecourt areas. Indeed, it was now urgent that he not stay any longer in Ireland.

He concluded that the guards now believed he was armed and dangerous and that soon every guard and policemen in Ireland and England would be searching for him. He had to get to France.

Tony would not be back from Germany for another week, and he might not get help from him anyway. Imelda Riney was now his only hope. He went back to his tent and began making preparations for the next day.

Brendan said during his trial that he got a lift back to Cregg Forest that Thursday night, but no witness ever came forward to corroborate this.