But does art imitate life, or is it vice versa? Whereas The Butcher Boy may be read as an almost gothic tale of horror and madness, the recurrent theme of victim and critic was played out in dramatic fashion in a quiet village in County Clare in 1994, when a disturbed young man ran amok and murdered three people, in a savage and horrific incident that rivals the melodrama of the central plot of The Butcher Boy. As the story unfolded over a number of weeks in April and May 1994, details of the lives of the three murder victims - artist Imelda Riney, her three-year-old son Liam and Fr. Joe Walsh - and also the murderer, Brendan O'Donnell, were recounted in the daily newspapers. In many respects O'Donnell's bleak and deprived early life echoed that of Francie Brady. His story began in the 1970s, when as a small child in a rural community, he displayed early signs of disturbance. The inner world of a disturbed child, portrayed so poignantly by Patrick McCabe's Francie, is not, of course, relayed by O'Donnell; although he has a story, he has no voice. As a result of his actions as an adult, his story is reconstructed through medical and prison reports, and through the medium of the press. Would the reader feel sympathy for Francie Brady, had his story been told in this manner? Because of his strangeness, O'Donnell, like McCabe's Francie, was rejected by the community in which he grew up. "He's not mad, he's bad", a former schoolmate said, when interviewed by the Sunday Tribune. (15th May 1994:A15)
Brendan O'Donnell was born in 1974 into a poor rural family living on the shores of Lough Derg in East Clare. It is alleged that his father was a bully and a wife-beater, and showed no fatherly interest or affection towards Brendan. Brendan's mother was said to be over protective, and consequently this led to an unhealthy relationship between mother and son. When he started to attend primary school at the age of five his mother not alone accompanied him, but sat beside him in the classroom, because he could not bear to be parted from her. When interviewed by Feargal Keane in The Sunday Tribune, a neighbour described the young Brendan O'Donnell as "bad to the core". (15th May 1994:A14) His behaviour at primary school was disturbed and disruptive. His mother died from cancer when he was nine years old, and his behaviour worsened considerably afterwards. According to neighbours, when he saw his mother laid in her grave he imagined that she was still alive and was being smothered by the clay which was being thrown on top. Unable to come to terms with her death, he was found stretched on her grave on several occasions, having spent the night lying on the frosty earth. (Cairns 2001:1)
In the years following his mothers' death he lived with his grandmother for a short time, and at other times with his older sister. It has been verified by his sister, grandmother, a family doctor and a psychiatrist that Brendan was physically abused by his father, who seemed totally unable to control him. His life of crime started in his early teens when he stole a gun and shot at a local Garda. Attempts were made to arrest him for threatening his father and for a series of burglaries and larcenies. He was sentenced to one and a half years at Trinity House in Dublin, where it is said he tried to kill himself by taking an overdose of tablets. He escaped and went on another crime spree. He was recaptured but escaped again. In the late eighties he spent some time in the Mountjoy prison complex, and although attempts were made to rehabilitate him when he got home, his behaviour became increasingly erratic.
Brendan O'Donnell had a younger brother called Aidan, and after his mother's death Aiden was sent to Wolverhampton to live with relatives. After his release from the Mountjoy complex, Brendan spent some time in England, though it is unclear if he was living with relations. When in England, he again served time in a young offenders home, from where he wrote a bizarre letter to local Gardaí in Clare, threatening to "paint Whitegate red". (Sunday Tribune 8th May 1994:19) On his release in March 1994 he returned to Clare, started on a campaign of vandalism and destruction in the area and threatened to kill his father. A confrontation with Gardaí at his caravan weeks before the murder resulted in him moving into the woods to live. Although relatives were concerned that he was becoming increasingly depressed, neighbours said that his bizarre behaviour had nothing to do with depression.
There is still no satisfactory explanation as to why Brendan O'Donnell changed from being a troublesome juvenile into an unfeeling psychopathic killer. It has been suggested in some reports of the tragedy that he was involved in a relationship with Imelda Riney, but this has been emphatically denied by her family. It seems more likely that as his behaviour became increasingly unstable and psychotic, he was a voyeur, viewing the attractive young woman and her son through the window of her cottage. On the twenty-ninth of April 1994 he abducted them both, and forced Imelda to drive to Cregg Woods where he shot them with a .22 rifle stolen from a local farmer. Afterwards it appears that he went to the home of Fr. Joe Walsh, whom he knew, and forced the priest to drive to Cregg Woods. Despite the priest's offer to mediate for him, and his offer of money so O'Donnell could return to England, he was told to kneel down and was then shot dead. O'Donnell later described how he spent the night in Cregg Wood with Fr. Walsh, and ate raw eggs and cake which were gifts from parishioners to the priest.
After the murders, Brendan O'Donnell burnt both cars, and following an unsuccessful attempt to abduct a man, he succeeded in capturing an eighteen-year-old girl. However, by this time the Gardaí had closed in on him, and after a week-long spree of brutal murders, O'Donnell was arrested on the 7th May 1994 between Woodford and Whitegate following a chase through woods and mountains.
Between
the time of capture and his trial, O'Donnell underwent a series of mental and
physical breakdowns. In January 1995 he cut his wrists, and although it was
reported in August 1995 that a fellow prisoner had tried to strangle him, this
was formally denied by the Eastern Health Board. His trial started prematurely
in January 1996, but had to be adjourned when he became ill. He made another
apparently genuine attempt at suicide in March 1996 when he tried to strangle
himself. His trial, when it eventually restarted, lasted fifty-three days, the
longest at that time in the history of the Irish state.
O'Donnell's defence outlined his early life, painting a picture of paternal
abuse and an over-protective and indulgent mother. The court was told by three
psychiatrists that O'Donnell suffered from a rare disorder "disorganised schizophrenia";
however three other experts disagreed. O'Donnell's testimony of the murder of
Imelda and Liam Riney was shocking and incomprehensible. He told the court that
on the 29th April he made Imelda drive to Cregg Woods and he told her he was
going to shoot her, whereupon she tried to take the gun from him. In the ensuing
struggle O'Donnell shot her in the eye. He then brought three-year-old Liam
over beside his mother and shot him in the side of the head. He then said that
this made him "feel very happy, a good feeling". (Cairns 2001:3)
The fifty-three day trial finally ended on the 2nd April 1996, when O'Donnell was found guilty of murder on a 10-2 verdict. The dissenting jurors found him guilty but insane. He was sentenced to life in prison. As a footnote to this tragic story, Brendan O'Donnell died of "natural causes" or an "overdose of prescribed medication" in prison on the twenty-fourth of July 1997. He was aged twenty-three.
In many respects Brendan O'Donnell's story is as much fiction as The Butcher Boy. Although it is evident that many of his actions, most especially his criminal activities, have been chronicled in newspapers and medical and prison reports, his background and personal history will always be open to misinterpretation and misrepresentation. The historic and thematic links between his story, The Butcher Boy and The God Squad demonstrate a persistent critique of contemporary Irish society. In all of these stories too, the Catholic Church features, both by its presence and its absence.
The effects
of a dysfunctional family background on the life of a child are now well documented,
and although it is apparent that Brendan O'Donnell displayed early symptoms of
disturbance, there is no record of any intervention by school authorities, social
workers or Health Board officials that might have prevented his deterioration
from troubled childhood into criminal insanity. It is on record that while his
behaviour in primary school was extremely disruptive, he lasted barely a week
in secondary school before quitting. (Sunday Tribune 15th May 1994:A14) As early
as 1970, the Kennedy Report had identified absence from school as part of a deeper
problem:
Persistent
absence from school may be one of the early warning signs of the
existence
of families and children in distress. Such difficulties may be physical,
psychiatric
or psychological...Such cases must be identified at the earliest stage
and
referred to the appropriate agencies for assistance whether by way of family
support
or medical or psychiatric treatment of the child. (Kennedy 1970:82)
It has been acknowledged that a key factor in the identification of children who have family and behavioural problems is a formal liaison between schools and health boards at local level. (Kilkenny Incest Investigation 1993:108) The recording of accurate, comprehensive and relevant material is also emphasised, which would necessitate systematic co-operation between officials of both the Department of Health and the Department of Education. However, communication between professional staff in child protection is acknowledged to be a complex issue, and many recent reports, including The Kilkenny Incest Investigation 1993 and The Interim Report on the Joint Committee on the Family 1996 found that the sharing of information on these cases left a lot to be desired. (Kilkenny Incest Investigation 1993:110)
Although there are no official reports of the intervention of social services in the case of the O'Donnell family, it is clear from media coverage of the tragic event of 1994 that many people in the small community in which O'Donnell lived were aware of the problems within his family, and the increasing strangeness and unpredictability of his behaviour. His mental condition was described by one psychiatrist at the time of his trial as hebephrenic schizophrenia. It is not possible to conclude that effective intervention at an early stage by health board officials or other statutory agencies would have prevented his downward spiral into violence. However, had this condition been diagnosed when he first came to the attention of the authorities for minor criminal activity when he was aged fifteen, it is possible that the tragedy of Whitegate may have been averted. Brendan O'Donnell's story confirms that the inadequacy of the system of care for troubled children continues.