Community reeling after ‘frenzied’ murder
They expected the 56-year-old at the local golf club as he watched nearly all the Ireland games there with his close friend, John Butler. Now they know where their friend was.
That afternoon, six miles away from Ennis, gardaí were trying to identify the badly mutilated body of a man found in a field outside the village of Ruan.
Mr Moloney had suffered serious head wounds and his throat had been slashed.
The shock of the brutal murder swept through Ennis town yesterday.
One of Mr Moloney’s customers was grandmother Caroline Slattery.
Mrs Slattery said: “I knew him well as a local man and a very quiet man. He often drove me out to Clarecastle. You’d feel for all the other taxi drivers and hackneys, particularly those working at night.”
Ennis Cabs director Kieran Kennedy yesterday said Mr Moloney was drinking a cup of tea at the back of the office last Friday night before he got his last fare.
There is no CCTV in the cab office and the person taking calls was unable to recall the identity of the passenger/s because they were so busy that night.
But whoever it was, they wanted a lift to Clarecastle at 7.14pm. That was the last time Liam Moloney was seen alive.
Mr Kennedy said the brutality of the murder was only beginning to sink in.
He said: “Every driver is nervous as any one of them could be next while whoever did it is out there.”
Mr Moloney began doing hackney work nearly two years ago after retiring from Aer Lingus at Shannon Airport, where he worked as an operations manager.
The separated father of four grown-up sons lived around the corner from the cab company office at 9, Barrack Close.
His face and head had been stabbed repeatedly in the attack and his body was dumped about 20 yards from the road, leading gardaí to suspect there may have been more than one person involved.
Mr Moloney’s Mazda was found at the rear of a pub in Barefield early yesterday.
The inside was saturated with blood and attempts had been made to set it alight. Such was the extent of bloodstains, gardaí say one or more persons repeatedly stabbed the victim as he sat in the car.
The pouch in which he kept his takings was found in the car, but his pockets were empty.
Supt John Kerin, who is leading the murder hunt, said: “We are not ruling out robbery.”
He described the attack as frenzied.
Yesterday taxi and hackney drivers were recalling two previous fatal attacks on drivers at work.
Eileen Costello O’Shaughnessy was found dead in her cab near Galway some years ago.
And Limerick taximan Henry Hurley was found dead in his taxi in Cratloe Woods in 1989.
As Valentine’s Day daffodil sellers moved through the streets of Ennis, Brendan Madigan from Kilkee said: “It is very hard for taxi people to go out at night knowing the killers are out there.”
Ennis hackney driver Tony Cullinan said: “I am absolutely horrified that something like this has happened in our community and particularly horrified that a hackney driver has been targeted.
“What has happened is unspeakable and puts every hackney driver on their guard. In my eight years as a hackney driver in Ennis, I had never heard of any driver being assaulted,” he added.
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