Mother perishes,with 2 children as she drives off pier near Galway

By Andrew Bushe

DUBLIN — A woman apparently deliberately drove her car, with her two young daughters in the back seat, off a west of Ireland pier and into the Atlantic in a tragedy that has shocked the community. All three drowned.

An eyewitness said Catherine Palmer, 37, of Lower Canal Street, Galway, first parked her car on Tarea Pier, about two miles from the village of Ballindereen, in the south of the county on Sunday.

She walked to the edge of the pier and looked into the water before returning to check on her children Jennifer, who was 9, and Louise, 6.

She then revved up the engine and drove over the edge of the pier into Kinvara Bay. The car turned over and sank in about 15 feet of water.

Stunned onlookers made desperate attempts to save the three. A diver brought Palmer and one of the children to the surface but was unable to revive them.

Garda are investigating the incident and trying to ascertain the circumstances that led up to the horrific plunge.

Also, the teenage uncle of an 18-month-old toddler, Jack Brennan, has been charged with the murder of the boy, who was found drowned with a rope around his neck tied to a brick in a flooded quarry near his Drogheda home recently.

Medical and psychiatric reports have been ordered by the court on David Brennan, 18, of Marsh Road, Drogheda, who was remanded in custody on the murder charge.

The child had vanished from his bed at his grandmother’s home at Marsh Road during the night and his buggy was also taken. He was found in his pajamas.