WORK has finished on a new documentary on the death of North Clare woman Emer O’Loughlin, which will be broadcast on TG4 in May. A talented artist, Emer was 23 years of age when her body was discovered in a burnt out mobile home at Ballybornagh, Tubber on April 8, 2005. Subsequent forensic tests showed that she was murdered. Seventeen years on there still has not been a conviction. A man named John Griffin, who lived close to Emer and her partner, is someone that Gardai wish to speak to about the matter. Following an incident on Inis Mór shortly after her death, he was taken into custody by Gardai, and subsequently brought into psychiatric care in Ballinasloe. However, he was allowed to leave a few days later, went back to the Aran Islands and is thought to have attempted to fake his own death there. He is subsequently known to have travelled from London to Germany. Gardai believe he …
Read More »Johnny’s notable Cahercalla contribution
CLARE musician Johnny O’Loughlin this week presented the proceeds of a CD he recorded to Cahercalla Hospice. Johnny released ‘Iontas na Nollag’ prior to Christmas and donated the sales to Cahercalla in appreciation for the care his uncle in law, the late Kieran O‘Regan and his family received at the hospice. Johnny said, “I really enjoy performing and recording. Family members and my violin teacher Claire Egan helped me with the tracks. “I wanted to do something positive and I remembered the great care that my uncle-in-law Kieran O’Regan received in Cahercalla Hospice. “I’m delighted with all the support from family and friends, including some in America! We’re planning some great collaborations for our next CD,” he promised. Thanking Johnny for his valuable contribution, a spokesperson for Cahercalla Community Hospice said, “Everyone who comes through our doors is on a journey and they stay with us at various times along that journey. “At times, it is when they are in …
Read More »“You never put it out of your mind, it’s always there”
“GARDAÍ are keeping an open mind on the latest tragedy to hit the county- the death of a young woman whose body was found in a burned out mobile home in Tubber last Friday afternoon.” The Clare Champion, April 15, 2005. When your world comes crashing down, it’s often when your phone rings on a perfectly ordinary day. That’s how it happened for Johnny O’Loughlin 14 years ago. On a spring evening, Shane Bowe, the partner of his 23-year old daughter Emer, rang him in a state of distress, just as Johnny was clocking off. “I was driving a truck, I was drawing pre-cast flooring out of Whelan’s. I was finished and I was coming out of the quarry heading home. I got a phonecall from Shane, her boyfriend, they were lovers for years and years. He was a carpenter, he rang me and told me that Emer was missing, her camera was there, the keys of her car were …
Read More »Is Emer O’Loughlin murder suspect in Morocco?
FOURTEEN years after his daughter Emer’s life was taken, Johnny O’Loughlin believes the man wanted in connection with her death is at large in Morocco. However, he feels little is being done to investigate the possibility that John Griffin is living in the North African state. This week, Mr O’Loughlin, who is from Ennistymon but now lives in Inagh, spoke about how raw the emotion over the loss of his much-loved daughter still is. Emer was murdered in 2005 and her remains were found in the burned-out mobile home of John Griffin. Mr Griffin was admitted to a psychiatric facility in Ballinasloe following an incident a few days after Emer’s death. He would subsequently check himself out of the facility, apparently attempt to fake his own death on the Aran Islands and has been missing since. Mr O’Loughlin said he has received credible information from an Irishman, who came across Mr Griffin, while in Morocco. While he says the person …
Read More »Dad’s agony as Emer’s killer still free
The father of a Clare woman killed 10 years ago this week said he is losing hope that her killer will be found. Johnny O’Loughlin spoke to The Clare Champion a decade to the day after his daughter Emer’s body was discovered in a burned-out mobile home at Ballybornagh, Tubber. “I was on the radio this morning,” Mr O’Loughlin said on Wednesday, “then I went to Ballybornagh and I put daffodils across from where she was found. She loved daffodils. Then I went up to Ennistymon and I put daffodils on her grave”. Mr O’Loughlin said he is heartbroken at the loss of his daughter and that her death is felt by him, and her siblings, every day. “I feel her loss every day. The longer it goes on, the worse it gets. My partner, she feels the same. My daughter in England feels it. My sons feel it. We want to find answers. I feel it every day. There …
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