Mother of five found dead in Galway hotel room was the 'very essence of life'

A mother of five found dead in a hotel room in Galway earlier this week was the “very essence of life” and a much-loved parent, grandmother, and childminder, says the priest in her parish of Donoughmore, Co Cork.

Fr Jeremiah O’Riordan said Betty Harrington, aged 64, was a fit, active woman.

“Betty was always walking and cycling. She was a very lively person, who was as fit as anything, involved in hill-walking and set-dancing. She was a great mother. That was her true vocation. Her children are all grown up now. She was also a childminder. A woman was telling me, at mass, that if Betty was minding your child, you knew the child was being minded.”