'Amazing person': High school friends remember Killarney murder victim Jamey Carney 

Investigators are hoping their American policing partners can help advance the search for a man who fled the country after the Kerry killing

Jamey Carney. Picture: Facebook

High school friends of Killarney murder victim Jamey Carney have described her “as an amazing person” after coming together to raise funds to help her family.

The friends from her days at Byram Hills High School in New York have set up one of two GoFundMe campaigns, which have collectively raised almost €30,000 for the 43-year-old mother’s daughter and her family.

The second fundraiser is being organised by Jamey’s younger sister, Devon Bennett, who has travelled to Killarney to be with Jamey’s 13-year-old daughter.

Jamey’s high school friend Rob Rubbico is spearheading the campaign and said the money being raised will be to support Michaela and the extended family.

On the family’s GoFundMe website, Devon, said of her sister: “Jamey was an insanely caring human being, who dedicated so much of herself, her energy, and her time, to fighting for the rights of others.” 

The funds are being raised as efforts to track a person of "significant interest", Ahmad Al-Saqar, continue. It is believed he had arrived in Turkey on a flight from Dublin on Tuesday morning and efforts are now underway to establish his exact whereabouts.

As he has not been charged with anything, and has been described as just a “person of significant interest” by gardaí, the next step on how to bring him back to Ireland, even if he is found, is uncertain.

Investigators leading the investigation are hoping their American policing partners can help advance the search for Mr Al-Saqar.

'Concerning level of victim blaming'

Meanwhile, concern has been raised about the online commentary around the murder.

“Western leftist pro-Palestinian women and those willing to convert to Islam need to wake up. Or they could end up like this,” wrote one poster on LinkedIn, with another poster writing an almost identically-worded post.

Another wrote: “Jamey Carney, an American activist in Ireland, spent her time shouting about an imagined 'genocide' and calling to 'Globalize the Intifada'." 

He added: “When you blindly call to 'Globalize the Intifada', do not be surprised when you become its next victim. Radical rhetoric looks great on paper — until reality hits.” 

MaryClare Clarke, chief executive of domestic violence service West Cork Beacon, said: “It is concerning the level of victim blaming we still have in society. 

"I think what we can do and what we are doing, is looking at ways to provide education to not only the community but media and government in how they discuss/report on cases of domestic sexual gender-based violence.”