‘The biggest cloud ever is hanging over Moyvane today’
Double murder victims Mike Hanrahan, 60, and his son, Denis, 27, regularly attended mass at their local church in Moyvane, six miles from Listowel.
A larger congregation than usual is expected when Moyvane parish priest Fr John Lucid celebrates mass at 7.30 this evening and leads prayers for the deceased and the bereaved family.
The priest had the traumatic experience of being called to the Hanrahan home at the Hill, Moyvane, to administer the last rites, after the discovery of their bodies on Thursday morning. He said Mike was always in the church about 20 minutes before mass began.
“I used love to see him there saying his prayers,” Fr Lucid recalled.
He said the father, a dairy farmer, and son were “pillars of the community and of the church”.
Denis’s twin brother, Shane, a civil servant in Limerick, also helped with church activities and was an assistant sacristan.
Shane and his three sisters — Karena, Marion and Aine — were being comforted by relatives and friends, yesterday. Their mother, Ann, a nurse in the Bon Secours Hospital, Tralee, died of cancer 12 years ago.
The family are also being kept informed of the progress of the investigation by a Garda liaison officer.
As the Moyvane community tried to come to terms with the murders, gardaí continued their forensic search for clues in the Hanrahan home, which was still sealed off.
Fields around the house were also being searched for a weapon that may have been used in the brutal killings.
Minute items of evidence that could lead to the arrest of conviction and perpetrator are being assembled and taken away for scientific analysis.
A Garda helicopter flew over the scene yesterday as the 60-strong team of investigators moved the murder hunt into top gear. Several people have been interviewed and house-to-house inquiries are continuing.
However, nobody has yet been arrested on suspicion of the killings, though Garda sources are hoping for an early development in the case.
Specialist units from Dublin, as well as Kerry gardaí and scenes of crime examiners are all involved.
Supt Kevin Donohoe, who was in Listowel to brief the media yesterday, confirmed that spent cartridges had been found in the Hanrahan home, which is in a narrow cul-de-sac, about a mile from the village of Moyvane.
Meanwhile, Mike Hanrahan was remembered yesterday as a leading member of the local development association and someone that was involved in many activities for the betterment of his community.
Development association secretary Seamus Roche said people had no words to describe their horror and revulsion over what had happened.
“We had tragedies in this parish before but nothing like this… to see a father and son taken in this way. We can’t find words for it,” he said.
A neighbour of the Hanrahan family, Denis Flaherty, said people were appalled to hear that a father and son had been killed in their own home.
“There’s a huge cloud hanging over Moyvane today, the biggest cloud ever,” he remarked.
