‘It is tragic, so sad ... he was a very good neighbour’
Mr Wrench, a native of England, had lived in Millstreet for almost 20 years in the house which he had turned from an almost derelict cottage into an impressive family home on two acres of land in Dromiscane.
Yesterday, neighbours described him as a decent man, well respected in the small community where all the houses were like “one big family”.
Sarah McSweeney, who lived a few hundred yards from the dead man, said: “If you met him on the road he would always stop. He was very easy going. You could have an ’ould laugh and talk away to him. He loved the children. He had great time for his girls.”
Jerry Doody, who also lived close by, said everyone was totally shocked. “It is tragic, so sad,” he said. “We knew there was something in the air last night (Monday) as there were a lot of lights round the house, but we only awoke this morning to hear what had happened.
“In the time he has been here, 17 odd years, he was a very good neighbour ... He fitted in, just became what we are about in this locality.”
The 42-year-old had initially lived at the house with the mother of his two children and neighbours told how he had put the house up for sale when the couple parted but had later taken it off the market.
Neighbours said he had been with his partner, named locally as Eve Walker, for approximately 12 months and had returned to his Millstreet home following a holiday in the North with her and both their families on the day he was shot.
One neighbour said he was somewhat bohemian at times and was hugely self sufficient with a variety of farmyard animals on his two acres of land.
Originally a boat builder, he had worked for K&L Deliveries in Dublin and Millstreet before entering the building trade in Ballymakeera.
He was also an accomplished bodhrán player who played in local pubs, as well as regularly playing at functions at the homes of his neighbours.
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