'I just hope he rots in hell': Nora Sheehan's family speak on finally receiving justice

Thu, 10 Aug, 2023 - 20:41

Pádraig Hoare

The family of Nora Sheehan, whose murder in 1981 was finally solved last week, have spoken of their “so gentle and fierce kind” loved one receiving justice after 42 years.

Noel Long, a now 74-year-old from Passage West in Cork, was found guilty last Friday of the murder of Nora Sheehan in 1981.

The body of Ms Sheehan, Crookstown-raised and living in Ballyphehane, was found in Shippool Woods, more than 25km from where she was last seen alive in June 1981.

Long, who had multiple previous convictions including for attacking women, was suspected of being involved in her murder in the early days of the investigation, but it took advances in forensic science over the decades to produce the evidence needed to bring him to justice.

Aged 32 at the time, he will now serve a mandatory term of life imprisonment for the murder of the 54-year-old mother-of-three.

In a special report by Barry Cummins and Brídóg Ní Bhuachalla on RTÉ One’s Prime Time, her family spoke of their love for Ms Sheehan, the impact her death had on everyone, and their wait for justice. Son James said:

She was fierce kind. Even back then if a neighbour died or anything like that, she’d always go to the homes and lay them out. She brought that with her from the country.

Nora’s son Jerry added: “She was lovely, she was always there. The two of them, he’d [Nora’s husband, James] work days and she’d work nights, so there’d be always someone with us.”

James died within four years of her murder, which “killed him”, they said. “Until then he was bouncing,” said Jerry.

They knew the suspect was living in Cork but they “had to live with it”, Jerry added.

I suppose the only thing we had was — we have good neighbours. We all grew up together and everyone was there for everyone else. Only for that we wouldn’t be surviving at all.

“I just hope he rots in hell for what he did,” Nora’s sister Sadie said. Sadie moved to the UK prior to the murder, and recalled the night she learned Nora had been killed.

“I always listened to Radio Éireann, and you’d get the news,” she said. “I heard this terrible news, and then I phoned home and I could not believe it. That’s when the shock set in, that it was actually her... somebody who was so gentle.”

Nora’s granddaughter Katie said the family has spent 42 years hoping that that day would come.

“Every single piece of information helps. It’s never too late to get justice for your loved ones,” she said.