Lixnaw inquests: Friend noticed Mossie O'Sullivan 'was not himself' hours before killings
According to a lifelong friend, Maruice 'Mossie' O'Sullivan (pictured) was "a small bit off, he was not himself" when they spoke by phone on Monday September 6, 2021. File picture
A sheep farmer was ‘not himself’ just hours before he is alleged to have shot his wife and son, the inquest into his death has heard.
Morris 'Mossie' O’Sullivan spoke to his lifelong friend, Maurice McCarthy, at around 9pm on Monday, September 6, 2021.
They spoke over the phone for ten minutes but Mossie was "a small bit off, he was not himself", the inquest heard. His friend's statement said:
Mr McCarthy's was one of a number of statements heard at the joint inquests into the deaths of Mr O’Sullivan, 63, his partner Eileen, 56, and the couple’s son, Jamie, 24.
Their bodies were found at their home in Lixnaw, Co Kerry on Tuesday, September 7, 2021.
The bodies of Eileen and Jamie were discovered by neighbours at around 8.30pm that day.
They were found in bedrooms and both bodies had suffered gunshot wounds — with one of the wounds sustained by Eileen judged at post-mortem examination to have been caused by her trying to defend herself before she died.
A follow-up search by gardaí led to the discovery of Mr O’Sullivan’s body face down on the ground at a shed near the boundary of the rear yard.
The former mechanic and bus driver, who farmed on a smallholding of about 20 acres, had sustained self-inflicted gunshot wounds and a firearm was recovered near his body.
Neighbour Kathleen Harrington was the last person to see Mr O’Sullivan alive — at 3pm on September 6. He was in a section of his yard that was overlooked by her house.
She said she tried to contact Mrs O’Sullivan at 7.14pm the following day on September 7, as she had been concerned about one of Mr O’Sullivan’s rams.
“The call just rang out, it was very unusual,” she said. “I decided to walk over to the house and I noticed the front door was open very slightly.”
When she arrived she met another neighbour, Nora Quilter, who was there to buy honey from the O’Sullivans, who kept bees. She said:
They decided to walk round the back of the house and in finding nobody there, they started looking in the windows.
Mrs Harrington said she looked into what was Mrs O’Sullivan’s bedroom and the curtains were not drawn.
“I looked in and I saw Eileen,” she said.
"I could see her head but not her face. Her legs were outside the blanket.
“I moved away from the window and told Nora that Eileen was asleep in bed but I had a feeling it was more than that.”
She then told Mrs Quilter she was going to go into the house. She said she went into the bedroom and recalled:
She then went to the next bedroom, where Jamie’s body lay motionless.
“I could see his face,” she said. "I knew he was dead by looking at him.”
She then went back to where Mrs Quilter was and told her: “We need to get help.”
The women then, at 8.15pm, drove to neighbour John O’Mahony, who duly returned to the house. On seeing the bodies, he called gardaí at 8.27pm.
Mr O’Sullivan informed them that at that point, Mr O’Sullivan was not to be found. Gardaí then told him to leave the premises and wait on the road outside with the two neighbours.
Margot Bolster, Assistant State Pathologist, earlier told North Kerry Coroner Helen Lucey that she carried out an autopsy on Mr O’Sullivan.
Dr Bolster concluded that he died from a single shotgun wound, and that there was no other reason for his death.
She said his partner Eileen was killed by a single shotgun wound to her chest. She said injuries to her right arm and armpit were “most likely her trying to protect herself”.
Dr Bolster also said she had been shot at close range, at less than 30cm away. She told the Coroner Helen Lucey that her son Jamie died from a single shotgun wound to his neck.
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