Murder deprived 'full of the joys' Bruna chance to enjoy her dream move to Ireland

Translations and learning language and nuanced meanings were elements that permeated this tragic case among the close-knit Brazilian community in Cork, writes Liam Heylin

The murder trial heard that Bruna Fonseca had said to Pacheco: 'I want to be single and you won’t let me. What is the other path? Go to a convent? Become a nun?'

Bruna Fonseca was entering 2023 with the tentative beginnings of a new romance with a fellow language school student before the Brazilian 28-year-old's life was taken from her by her ex-boyfriend before the new year could even begin to unfold.

Bruna's dream was to come to Ireland. When the qualified librarian eventually travelled from her home in Formiga in Minas Gerais province, northwest of Rio de Janiero, to start her life here she must have been — to a use a local expression that she may have picked up in her eagerness to learn more English — "full of the joys".