Chapter 22: Brendan’s Story

JJ Muggivan

Brendan O’Donnell was questioned on several occasions throughout 7 May 1984. On one occasion, he told guards that the missing persons were ‘okay’. ‘Nobody will harm the child,’ he said. Questioned later on in the day, he told the guards that he didn’t ‘give a fuck’ about the missing persons, saying that nobody except his mother had ever cared about him, and that she was dead.

At another time, he said that he couldn’t tell the guards anything. ‘I don’t want to talk about it, he said, becoming upset. ‘It’s too late now. Leave it out. I’ll not go into that.’

In the evening, when he was told that Fr Joseph Walsh’s body had been found, and was asked about his involvement, Brendan said, ‘You have his body and the forensic will do the rest.’ He said that he didn’t want to discuss it any further and that he couldn’t tell the guards any more.

Brendan was asked if he accepted that the gun that had killed Fr Walsh had been in his possession, and he laughed at the guards, saying, ‘You find that out. You’re the fucking experts!’

He told the guards to keep searching in the wood for the other bodies. When asked to accompany the guards to Cregg Forest to show them the place where the other bodies were, Brendan complained that the ‘fucking press’ were all over the place and said that he would go only if there were no cameras.

He then began to speak about his experience in the Central Mental Hospital where he had had a friendship with John Gallagher from County Donegal, who had been found ‘guilty but insane’ of murdering his girlfriend and her mother in the grounds of Sligo General Hospital. Brendan told the guards that he had been going to ‘do a John Gallagher’ the night Fr Walsh’s car was found burned out at Williamstown Pier.

A garda car left Loughrea barracks with Brendan hidden in the back seat to avoid the media. As the garda car drove towards Cregg Forest, a news report on the radio informed the occupants that the body of a woman had been found in a wood in County Clare.

Brendan shouted, ‘You have it all now. We don’t have to go any further.’

The guards asked where Liam’s body was, and he said, ‘You will find the child now. They’re all shot.’ He became upset and said he wanted to go to his mother’s grave. ‘Take me to my mother’s grave,’ he said. ‘I know she’s in heaven looking down at me. Why did I have to kill them? I’m worse than a fucking animal.’

He became increasingly agitated and shouted at the guards, ‘Shoot me, you cunts. You haven’t the balls.’

After a while, he calmed down and said that he no longer wanted to visit his mother’s grave. ‘Stop,’ he said. ‘Take me back. My mother won’t want to see me now after all that I did. I’ve told you enough. I’m not showing you any more.’

On the return journey to Loughrea garda station, Brendan pointed out a shop where he had bought sardines and buns, and he showed the guards a wood where he had eaten them. He refused to discuss the deaths but told the guards about his father, and how he had not taken him back when he returned from England. He was more relaxed but still emotional.

The guards suggested that Brendan might like to see his father. At first, he declined, but then said that he would. He promised to tell the truth about the three deaths, saying that he would then be at peace with himself and would make peace with his father.

They arrived back in Loughrea and Brendan was returned to a cell. He met his father for a while and then made a statement, in which he said:

I will tell you what happened. I shot them all. I can’t talk about it. I don’t want to think about it. I must be evil. I had the gun for a while before that. I don’t know what day I got it. You have the number and you know where I got it.I don’t giveaf...

The forensic will connect the gun. I will spend the rest of my life in jail. I don’t give af... I can do the time. I will go to Dundrum. At least I got the priest to pray for the woman and the youngster.

The priest said ‘I don’t mind dying.’ Ye have my head screwed up. I’m not saying any more. In an unsigned interview the following day, Brendan told the guards:

I had killing on my mind. I shot them from about 12 feet. The priest blessed them, the child had no pain, the woman went very white. The blood poured out of the priest’s head. The priest wasn’t afraid to die. He said ‘Don’t shoot yourself, Brendan.’ I got enjoyment out of it. The woman thought I was in the IRA. The Provos

will get me for shooting the priest. I panicked. I couldn’t bear to look at the child. I had to talk to somebody. My mind was gone till yesterday. In another unsigned interview, he told the guards that he would be ‘going down for 20 years’. He continued:

I deserve it. I should be shot. You should have given me lead today, it would be all over. Ye hadn’t the fucking guts to do it, I can do my time. I have been in every prison in Ireland and a few in

England. I was in Dundrum with Gallagher who shot the girlfriend in Sligo. He told me all about it. I bluffed the doctors that time. I will do it again.

He asked if he could see a priest, and arrangements were made for this.

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Brendan went through three stages in his response to questioning about the killings: denial, cooperation, and confession. As his denial broke down, he showed remorse and acknowledgment of the evil of what he had done. After acknowledging the evil of his actions, he saw himself as having offended, initially at least, not God but his mother.

He did not remain too long without a plan for escaping the most severe penalty for his actions. When he realised he could no longer deny what he had done, he began thinking of the Central Mental Hospital, not prison. This plan dominated the next stage of his life. He was determined to escape prison.

His strategy for escaping prison and going to Dundrum took shape gradually. It began within hours of being caught. First he told guards:

I have been in every prison in Ireland and a few in England. I was in Dundrum with Gallagher who shot the girlfriend in Sligo. He told me all about it. I bluffed the doctors that time. I will do it

again. Later, he said: I will spend the rest of my life in jail. I don’t give af ...,1 can do the time. I will go to Dundrum.

Brendan went on to talk about his experience in the Central Mental Hospital and about his friendship with John Gallagher, telling guards that he was going to ‘do a John Gallagher’ the night he had burned out Fr Walsh’s car at Williamstown Pier. There had been some reports that John Gallagher had pretended to have attempted suicide by driving his car close to water and leaving it there.

On the previous Thursday night, Brendan had driven the priest’s car onto rocks in Williamstown. The way the car had been left, burned out, it appeared as if he had attempted to drive it into deep water and drown himself. The location of the car was where his friend had drowned two years previously.

In a Clare Champion editorial a week after the arrest of Brendan O’Donnell, the editorial writer gave the opinion that the guards who had questioned Brendan believed that he had gone to Fr Walsh because of remorse at having killed Imelda Riney and Liam. The opinion was expressed that Fr Walsh had gone voluntarily with him to Cregg Forest in order to give the last rites to the dead mother and child. The opinion continued that something had gone wrong and Brendan had shot Fr Walsh.

The above opinion or theory is consistent with Brendan’s state of mind after the bodies had been found. He was closer to telling the truth at that point than he was at his trial. By the time of the

trial, he had developed a strategy to be sent to Dundrum Central Mental Hospital as opposed to Arbor Hill Prison.