Searchers stunned by news of grim find

Seán O’Riordan

It wasn't that they were too tired to talk; they were just too stunned.

Local teenagers milled around a few yards from the cordon thrown up by gardaí.

They, too, looked dumbstruck as news filtered through that a body had been found by volunteer searchers just yards from where they were standing, near a Co Cork strand.

The signpost next to them said, Inch strand 500 metres. During the summer the road down to the shore is thronged with people. It's a popular area for tourists and local walkers. Fishermen often come there, as indicated by the sign which says it's a good spot for catching flatfish, bass and codling. In the winter, however, it's a lonely and sometimes very inhospitable place.

The body, believed to be that of Robert Holohan, was discovered by two members of the public who volunteered to take part in a search yesterday morning. Gardaí, 100 troops and scores of locals searched the coastal areas of Whitegate, Guileen and Inch.

A mini press conference was being held in Midleton Garda Station when news of the grim discovery was made, shortly after 2pm.

The volunteers who found the body notified soldiers with them, who initially sealed off the area until gardaí arrived at the scene.

It is understood the searchers saw a limb sticking out from underneath dense shrubbery, a couple of hundred yards inland from the strand. A small, unoccupied house lies nearby.

Within minutes gardaí had cordoned off quite a large area around the site and were keeping the media and members of the public well back.

Fr Billy O'Donovan, who had comforted the Holohan family in recent days, arrived at 3.15pm and went down to the scene where he said the last rites.

A number of senior gardaí blessed themselves in front of the body. Their faces were etched with the sheer enormity of it all.

At 4.20pm Assistant Commissioner Tony Hickey walked back up towards the main road with Fr O'Donovan as more and more gardaí poured into the area.

Dozens of troops started marching back down the adjoining narrow roads towards their trucks.

It was a very solemn procession, as though every one of them knew they had lost a battle.

Garda press officer, Superintendent Kevin Donohue, held a press briefing faced by a battery of cameras and tape recorders.

He said the body, which won't be formally identified until today, had been found in what he described "as a very inaccessible place".

The scene was examined by garda technical experts and more are expected to arrive from Dublin early today. It is believed the body was deliberately dumped there from either a car or a van.

Fr Denis Kelleher, parish priest of Aghada which covers the Inch area also came to the scene.

"The feeling is one of numbness. There is a mixture of all types of emotions. This is the worst thing that could happen," Fr Kelleher said.

Dozens of volunteers who had been searching elsewhere trudged back into East Cork Golf Club later in the evening with their heads bowed.

Helen White, who had been manning the kitchens, said that, though obviously hungry, people didn't want to eat the hundreds of sandwiches laid out for them. Her husband, Dermot, had helped out in the search for the past few days.

The mother of two grown up children was fighting back the tears when she said: "The public must help the gardaí to root out the person who did this, otherwise no child is safe."

With that sentence she captured the feeling not just of her community, but the whole country.