Probe into publican death to be ‘long haul’
Gardaí in Tullamore and Daingean said they were “on top of the case”, but have no firm suspects yet. The 64-year-old landlord was found dead with his hands tied behind his back lying face down on the sitting room floor of his house in the village of Daingean, at 7.30am on Wednesday.
The grim discovery was made by his son, Matthew, who lived with his father in their home, which is attached to the family pub, the Gaelic Bar. Mr Farrell had been last seen at 2.30am by bar staff. Initial indications suggested Mr Farrell, who was in bad health and overweight, may have died from a heart attack in what gardaí said was a “burglary gone wrong”. But postmortem results showed the popular publican died from a head wound. “It was blunt force trauma. It could have been a kick, punch, he could have been stood on, we don’t know.”
