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A Tragedy Waiting To Happen: The Chaotic Life Of Brendan O'Donnell
Tony Muggivan is a farmer. One wet night in February 1989, Brendan O Donnell entered his life and that of his family. He had absconded from Trinity Detention Centre in Dublin and had been missing for a week. He turned up at Tony Muggivan s door, dirty, dishevelled and starving. The Muggivans took him in. Tony had never seen O Donnell before.
The next day, Tony Muggivan, in agreement with the Gardai, got a week s grace for O Donnell and began a search for help. It was clear that he should be in a psychiatric unit, not a detention centre. Doctors, social workers and the Gardai all agreed that this was the best course of action. As there was no place for him in Co. Clare, Muggivan took O Donnell to hospitals in Ballinasloe and Galway, where they refused to admit him. Frustrated and angry, Muggivan and O Donnell returned home. Over the next five years Brendan began living rough and embarked on a campaign of armed robbery and mayhem in the east Clare area. It was evident he was out of control.
In 1994 O Donnell murdered Imelda Riney, her three-year old son Liam and Fr. Joe Walsh. It was one of the most shocking crimes of modern times. O Donnell was convicted in 1996 and died in prison in 1997 in circumstances that have never been fully explained by the authorities.
Tony and J.J. Muggivan recount Brendan O Donnell s tragic life, and highlight the failures of the system to help a deeply disturbed boy who later became a pyschotic killer. Tony Muggivan had known that something awful was going to happen: for five years, he had tried and failed to get the Irish social and medical system to offer appropriate treatment to a desperately sick young man.
A Tragedy Waiting to Happen reveals the truth behind the headlines and the real Brendan O Donnell.
The next day, Tony Muggivan, in agreement with the Gardai, got a week s grace for O Donnell and began a search for help. It was clear that he should be in a psychiatric unit, not a detention centre. Doctors, social workers and the Gardai all agreed that this was the best course of action. As there was no place for him in Co. Clare, Muggivan took O Donnell to hospitals in Ballinasloe and Galway, where they refused to admit him. Frustrated and angry, Muggivan and O Donnell returned home. Over the next five years Brendan began living rough and embarked on a campaign of armed robbery and mayhem in the east Clare area. It was evident he was out of control.
In 1994 O Donnell murdered Imelda Riney, her three-year old son Liam and Fr. Joe Walsh. It was one of the most shocking crimes of modern times. O Donnell was convicted in 1996 and died in prison in 1997 in circumstances that have never been fully explained by the authorities.
Tony and J.J. Muggivan recount Brendan O Donnell s tragic life, and highlight the failures of the system to help a deeply disturbed boy who later became a pyschotic killer. Tony Muggivan had known that something awful was going to happen: for five years, he had tried and failed to get the Irish social and medical system to offer appropriate treatment to a desperately sick young man.
A Tragedy Waiting to Happen reveals the truth behind the headlines and the real Brendan O Donnell.
- GenresNonfiction
246 pages, Paperback
First published September 8, 2004
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