Catherine the Fake: How Clare became a playground for the fraudster 

Catherine O'Brien has left a trail of destruction in her wake, from the west coast, across the Midlands and south, to the east coast. Ann Murphy speaks to some of the people affected by her crimes

It is clear that the connections made by Catherine in Clare were treated not as friends but as acquaintances which came in useful to her business plans. Picture: Irish Mail on Sunday

Ralph McTell's famous ballad It’s a Long Way from Clare to Here tells of life as an Irish emigrant in London. The ballad’s chorus could just as easily have been written about Catherine O’Brien, for whom Clare became a playground for several years, even though she lived almost 200kms away in Dungarvan.

A romantic online connection with a Clare vet led to her spending weekends regularly in west Clare, with her social life revolving around the new friends she was making there. And when she advertised positions in a pub which she said she had bought, those friends eagerly looked forward to fun nights in a premises owned by one of their own.