Ex-husband added to family's years of 'hell and trauma' by contacting them from prison

Despite a court order not to contact his ex-wife, the violent convict caused further distress by 'bombarding' her with letters

53-year-old Michael Quirke of Manor Hills, Rathcormac, Co Cork had been jailed after he pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Mary Quirke, two counts of threatening to kill her. and one of harassment. File picture: Cork Courts

For a Fermoy woman and her three children, a brutal chapter in their lives came to an end when her husband was jailed for five years for trying to murder her in the family home. 

It ended when the door closed behind Michael Quirke at the Anglesa St courthouse. It was all over now that he had admitted his guilt and he was jailed. 

And for the avoidance of all doubt, it was categorically case closed as there was a court order made by the sentencing judge for the accused never to have any kind of contact with his wife again.

All of the terror and harassment seemed to come to an end on February 9, 2021. 

That day, the injured party, Mary Fitzgerald, said: "I believe that my former husband should be excluded from the townland of Lisnagar… until the court believes that the physical risk to me and my three children no longer exists."

At last, the family could strive to rebuild their lives now that it was over.

But no. It wasn’t over then. And it’s still not over now. 

It didn’t end in February 2021. And through a careful circumventing of prison regulations, Michael Quirke managed to reach out through prison bars to continue the ordeal of harassment experienced by his wife and children.

The 55-year-old man who — in his own words — tried to murder his wife, was back in court as recently as Thursday, November 2, for his criminal behaviour against his family.

Ms Fitzgerald said: “I find it very difficult to comprehend that I am here writing another victim impact statement due to the actions of my ex-husband Michael Quirke. 

"My three children and I were fully of the belief that when Michael was convicted and sentenced in February 2021 for offences he had committed against me, that justice had happened and the nightmare that we as a family were subject to was over.

"It was especially relieving to hear the judge at the time telling Michael that he is never to have contact with me and my children at any stage in the future. We felt safe and I felt this would allow [us] to rebuild our lives.

'Bombarded with letters'  

“This however was short-lived and again found myself feeling threatened and fearful in my own home at the hands of my ex-husband. 

"We were bombarded with letters. The fact that he was making me feel this way while in prison further exacerbated this as I fear what the future may hold for us as a family in the future if he is capable of this while being in prison.

“A time when I hoped and thought I would have been safe but even though he was behind bars he was still contacting us.” 

Alarm and distress

The letters and correspondence — 19 separate items sent over a period of nine months — caused at the very least alarm and distress.

And yet none of the items contained threats. They included Christmas cards, nine-page letters, and words cut from magazine and stuck together on pages.

To understand how any correspondence from Michael Quirke — even nothing that was overtly threatening — could have rattled the family so much again, one has to return to the behaviour that put him in jail for five years.

'I attempted to murder Mary Quirke' 

For Detective Garda Dave Barry and Detective Sergeant James O’Shea, that case started when Mr Quirke walked into Fermoy garda station, unannounced.

It was January 2019 and one of Michael Quirke’s first comments got the kind of undivided attention of An Garda Síochána that one would imagine. “I attempted to murder Mary Quirke”, he said in relation to his ex-wife, Mary Fitzgerald.

Det Garda Barry recalled, “He said [it happened] on two occasions. In the bedroom at their home he put a trouser belt around her neck and lifted her off the chair for three seconds. 

Intention to kill 

"He said it was his intention to kill Mary Quirke on this date. They [adult children] heard a loud scream. They were prevented from entering the room. 

"At the end of January 2019 he held her against the wall. He said, ‘I did threaten her that I had a rope in the shed and I would hang her. If my hands came out [they were in his pockets] I would have killed her.’” 

That is what he said to the gardaí. 

Threatening phone call  

What he said to Ms Fitzgerald on the phone around that time was perhaps even more chilling: 

“Even if I do go to jail, when I get back out, even if that is in two years, I will be the same man when I get back out and you will have to deal with it then. The guards will not be around you when you need them most. 

When I get out of jail, be it two years, I will be the same. You won’t have that protection that you have now.

"You have 24-hour round the clock garda armed response and they won’t be there when you need them the most.” 

In fact, he didn’t even wait until he got out of prison. He didn’t let prison bars prevent him from continuing the harassment. 

This took some out-thinking of the system in the prison service for ensuring that correspondence from prisoners does not result in, for instance, a breach of a court order against an inmate.

Circumventing prison regulations 

In Michael Quirke’s case, he could not have any correspondence with his family. Addressing them by name in letters or putting their name on an envelope would have identified the correspondence immediately as material to be blocked.

In effect, Michael Quirke employed a type of code that would not be spotted by the prison service but would be easily understood by the recipients. He went back into the family’s history and used old family nicknames, work-related titles or other ready identifiers. In this way the post got out of the prison and landed where he wanted.

Back in court this week  

Why he wanted his communiqués to land back in the heart of his family was picked over to some degree in the case that arose this week at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. 

Early in the defendant’s prison sentence, an old colleague of the accused had approached the family saying he would bring some of the prisoner’s clothes and personal effects to him in Cork Prison. 

While there was family cooperation to the extent of facilitating this at a practical level, Det Garda Barry said it was not done at the behest of Ms Fitzgerald and she did not communicate with her ex-husband in this process.

Also around this time, a mutual friend of Ms Fitzgerald and the accused wrote him a letter when he was in prison.

Defence senior counsel Jane Hyland said that, entirely wrongly, Michael Quirke took some encouragement from these third-party contacts and decided to communicate with his family.

Two different interpretations were put on his actions in this regard. Ms Hyland said: “He effectively grasped at straws in trying to reconcile with his family.” 

Judge Helen Boyle put it otherwise: 

He took the view that he could breach a court order which was unambiguous in all its terms.

Ms Hyland further argued, that his actions were linked to his mental health issues, being diagnosed with “bipolar disorder and emotionally unstable personality disorder” and that while alone in a prison cell he felt isolated and took solace in corresponding with his family.

That was what Michael Quirke wanted. 

But Mary Fitzgerald wants something else entirely, something quite basic — to be left alone.

'We just want to be safe'

She said: “We just want to be safe and live our lives like any other family can live theirs without the constant fear and absolute terror being a huge influence on our lives.

“The letters received from Michael made me frightened and caused me huge amounts of distress which caused effects on my life both mentally and physically, and that of my of children. 

From Michael’s actions, I am always on edge. I continuously lived in a state of anxiety and uncertainty.

“From here on we as a family would like no further contact from my ex-husband in any way. We just wanted to be left alone to get on with our lives. I want to be able to get on with my life, to rebuild and recover after years of hell and trauma we have been subjected to.

“It is so important to me and my family to try and heal from all the hurt and damage that has been caused at the hands of Michael Quirke.” 

As the sentencing hearing drew to a close — where the accused was given one more year in prison on top of the five years he is serving, and another one year suspended from when he gets out of jail — Michael Quirke wanted to speak.

Jane Hyland told Judge Boyle during the latest hearing that whenever she finished delivering her sentence, Mr Quirke wanted to address his family directly in court to apologise to them. 

By the time this moment arose and Ms Hyland referred to the matter again, prosecution barrister Imelda Kelly indicated that state solicitor Frank Nyhan had consulted with the family in court and they did not want Mr Quirke to speak to them directly in Cork Circuit Criminal Court. 

In fact, it has been made abundantly clear for such a long time now that they do not want him communicating with them by any means anywhere. Ms Hyland expressed the apology on his behalf.

The question for Ms Fitzgerald and her family that will exercise their minds from here on, is whether they can hope at last, that maybe now it really is, finally over.