O'Donoghue house vacant since son's confession

THE O'Donoghue house in Ballyedmond, Midleton is still lying vacant - nearly a year after their son confessed to killing Robert Holohan.

Twenty-one-year-old Wayne O'Donoghue was found guilty this week of the manslaughter of his 11-year-old neighbour and friend, Robert Holohan, at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork. He has returned to the Midlands Prison after the 10-day trial and is due to be sentenced in Ennis next month.

Robert Holohan's young life ended on January 4 last and his family still can't - and possibly never will - come to terms with their loss.

For Wayne O'Donoghue's family, life will never be the same again either.

On the morning of January 16, their eldest son drove home from Midleton to break the news to his father, Ray that he had killed Robert. Wayne had spent up to eight days with hundreds of other locals searching for the young boy, had consoled Robert's mother, Majella, and was even due to do a reading at Robert's funeral before Cork hurler, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín offered to step in.

The night of Wayne's confession, the O'Donoghue family - Ray, his wife Therese, and their other sons, Timmy and Nicky, left the family home so it could be examined by forensic gardaí. They never came back.

The family had lived in Ballyedmond for more than 20 years and their children knew no other home apart from a holiday house in West Cork.

The Ballyedmond bungalow, just separated from the Holohan home by a laneway, is now vacant. The family have moved to Aghada, about nine miles from their former home and overlooking Cork harbour.

Their former home was rented out for a number of months to a couple from outside Cork who wanted a short-term lease but it's now empty again

Locals in Midleton doubt that the family will ever return there, saying that it would hold too many bad memories.

According to Wayne's statement to gardaí, it was on the gravel driveway outside the home that he caught Robert in that fatal headlock and it was in that bathroom that the listless body lay as Wayne tried to work out what to do.

A local man said: "The O'Donoghue family have not been targeted by the local community. The boys remained in their old schools and the parents tried to keep things as normal as they could for their other children. The elder boy went on to get about 600 points in his Leaving Cert.

"There's no reason why they shouldn't continue to live here for years to come but they may leave the country when Wayne is released from prison."