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A WOMAN WHOSE husband and two sons died in a murder suicide in Kanturk, Co Cork last year has passed following a long battle with an undisclosed terminal illness.
Anne O’Sullivan, who was a former nurse, had to endure the loss of her sons Mark (26) and Diarmuid (23) and her husband 59-year-old Tadhg.
Ms O’ Sullivan (60) fled the family farmhouse on 26 October last when Tadhg and Diarmuid shot her eldest son in an inheritance row over the family farm. She ran to a neighbour’s house to raise the alarm after realising Mark had been shot.
After Mark’s shooting Diarmuid and Tadhg went to a field some 600 metres from the farmhouse in Kanturk and ended their own lives.
Prior to ending their lives, the pair told Ms O’Sullivan that she would have to live with the despair of what had occurred.
Ms O’Sullivan attended both the funeral of Diarmuid and Tadhg and the separate requiem mass of her son Mark.
Diarmuid and Tadhg were buried together at St Brigid’s Cemetery in Castlemagner whilst Mark was laid to rest in a plot belonging to his mother’s family following a funeral mass in Kanturk. In funeral notices, Ms O’Sullivan was described as a “heartbroken” widow and mother.
At Mark’s funeral Mass in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Kanturk mourners were told that he accompanied his mother to Dublin the month before his death. There she underwent surgery for a serious medical condition.
Sharmilla Rahman said in a tribute to her friend Mark at his requiem mass that he was “the greatest son a mother could have.”
I know the bond between Mark and Anne was unbreakable. He had such a big heart and so much love to give as a friend. I know that but I can’t begin to imagine how much effort and love he put into being Anne’s son.
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Horrendous act of pure evil. With guns available so readily any person with a grievance or psychotic motive can commit a mass murder at any time, anywhere.
5th a mass KILLING this year alone, it’s 23 January. That’s a mass shooting every 4 days or so.
There’s actually been 33 Mass Shootings in January – That’s almost 1.5 mass shootings per day!
Any other country experiences a mass shooting and the next day they are putting into place stricter gun controls. Not America, they want to put guns in everyones hands to protect others against a mass shooter… what a weird way of thinking…
‘Murica.
@Rafa Condron: they live in different world over there.
So sad to think of all the needless deaths and suffering. I am not sure that gun control would even be enough – but it might be a start. However, something in the US physic seems to create an element of self entitlement which manifests in many ways and not just in mass shootings. Still we hope and pray.
National Rifle Association – I hope you’re happy. As long as you resist reasonable legislation to curb gun control, these events will continue.
No doubt more weapons would sort out this type of problem, maybe even a few tanks. Yeah, let them have tanks. Freeeedoom!
There are more guns than people in the US. Literally.
@Bert Carolan: I can’t remember the exact statistic, but it would take an incredible amount of time to decommission all the guns owned in America. I think it was beyond decades and into hundreds of years. The logistics that would be involved are staggering.
The article states this is the fifth mass shooting of 2023. However, according to CNN who reference Gun Violence Archive this is in fact number 33.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/01/23/politics/mass-shootings-in-2023-what-matters/index.html
@Steve: 5th mass killing. There have been of course 33 mass shootings as I said in the comments already.
Not a bit surprised. It’s the norm in Amercia to go around shooting people.
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