‘People are reluctant to say anything’
There was no answer at his family home yesterday, though every window was open in the old, roadside bungalow nestled in trees. A Golden Labrador with a chain attached to its collar barked in a pen fenced with chicken wire and there were ducks in another patch nearby.
It was in the small, white-painted cottage about five miles from Ballylinan and 20 miles from Portlaoise that Howard grew up. His sister, Teresa Wilkie, a widow with no children, now lives there.
The small conservatory to the front of the cottage was full of potted plants and the steps to the front door were lined with small, colourful shrubs. A Belfast sink was bursting with colour, filled with small, scented plants. It was difficult to see how such a monster could come from such a tranquil, homely setting in the leafy countryside.
Howard would walk to the local primary school just across the fields.
“I’ve a vague recollection of him from school,” a local woman said. “I remember him all right. But at the time, the girls and the boys played in different yards in school. You’d be in trouble if you even tried to look over the fence.
“His sister, Teresa Wilkie, still lives in the homeplace down there. And he has cousins all over the place. People are reluctant to say anything about him, because he has so many relations here. And they are all fine people. They don’t bother anyone.
“I’m very sorry for his family. People are not surprised by what they have been reading over the past few days. In a way, we’ve been hearing about it for the past 20 years.”
At the local post office in Wolfhill, there was talk of nothing else amid unfounded fears that the dig in nearby Ballylinan could uncover further secrets from a dark and murky past. However, after four bodies were exhumed - following a tip-off given in good faith - gardaí said there was nothing to indicate the evidence was reliable.
“The information we were acting on that there was a further body there was incorrect,” said a garda.
Speculation was rife the grave had contained the remains of one of the women who disappeared without trace in the midlands over the past 12 years.
“When he was done for stuff away from here it didn’t impact as much,” a local man said. “But when it comes just four miles in the road, it brings it all very much home.”
Several newly built, red-bricked two-storey homes on the hill towards Ballylinan were unoccupied yesterday. It’s a major commuter hub - just over 50 miles from Dublin and a half hour from Carlow. The Swan is renowned for its tranquillity and the many hundreds who have made it their home were yesterday only waking up to the secrets of its past.
