A MOTHER and child were found yesterday in a shallow grave in the
Irish Republic. Both had been shot in the head.
They were discovered in a County Clare wood, near the spot where a
Roman Catholic priest's body, also with a gunshot wound in the head, was
located late on Saturday.
The priest was Fr Joseph Walsh, 37, a curate from Eyrecourt, County
Galway.
Ms Imelda Riney, 29, an artist, and her son Liam, three, had been
missing for more than a week. All the bodies were found near the Riney
home village of Whitegate, County Clare.
A local man, arrested near the scene on Saturday after the abduction
of a teenage girl, is to appear in court today at Loughrea, County
Galway. Initial charges are expected to be in connection with the
abduction. Brendan O'Donnell, 20, who allegedly fired at police with a
rifle when he was arrested, is known locally as the Border Fox.
The bodies were found after a widespread search over 10,000 acres of
wooded hills and bogland, involving police, troops and dozens of local
volunteers, aided by helicopters and spotter aircraft.
Many of the volunteers in the search wept when the child's body was
found huddled beneath that of his mother.
Ms Riney is separated from her husband, Mr Val Ballance, 38. He went
to the makeshift shared grave and was said by eye-witnesses to have been
''visibly shattered''.
O'Donnell had allegedly forced 17-year-old Fiona Sampson to drive him
away at gunpoint in her family's car before she was released unharmed.
Two months ago, he returned to Ireland after serving a two-year prison
sentence in Wolverhampton for burglary. Before that he had a reputation
for petty crime in his home county.
On his return he found the house in which he had lived while in
Whitegate had been bought by Ms Riney, who had another child,
seven-year-old Oisin.
O'Donnell then lived mainly in the woods around the village or slept
rough in the forest hills close to Lough Derg.
O'Donnell liked being called the Border Fox. This was the nickname
also used by Dessie O'Hare, a notorious terrorist, who is in jail for
the kidnapping of dentist John O'Grady in 1987.
O'Donnell's attachment to outdoor life is traced by local people to
the death of his mother in 1983 when he was only nine. He would often go
missing and be found sleeping on her grave at Clonrush Cemetery by the
river Shannon. After his father remarried and the boy went his own way,
he became increasingly uncontrollable and was frequently in trouble.
Dublin-born Ms Riney had been separated from Mr Ballance for some
time, but had kept in touch, and it was he who raised the alarm when she
failed to turn up for an appointment in Whitegate nine days ago.
Chief Superintendent Jim McHugh said police were not looking for
anyone in connection with the deaths.
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