Cork mother describes life after partner found dead in slurry pit
A Cork mother has been describing how she and her two daughters Lily, 4-years-old, and Katie, 2-years-old, have carried on since her partner Diarmuid Twomey was found dead in a slurry pit in Whitechurch in January.
Ciara Byrne called the Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s RedFM earlier today to thank the Cork public for their help and support during their ordeal over the last few months.
She says the family are slowly coming to terms with the loss but when her daughters cry out for their father, she tells them, "daddy got lost in the dark and went to heaven".
“Lily will have good days and bad days and she’ll start crying for him… your heart would break.”
She added, “what happened is nothing more than a tragic accident. It appears he got hypothermia and wasn't in his right senses.
“The outcome was devastating for us all especially considering where he was found. As time goes on you never really forget it, you just learn to live with it. He will be forever in our hearts and always with us.”
“You go from day-to-day.”
Recalling the night that Diarmuid went missing, Ciara said, “there was bad rain that night and sure he only had a shirt on him.”
“We know he doubled back to obviously look for the phone but he went to the next farm up from where he dropped the phone… the slurry tank… I was told it was only three quarters covered so he was unlucky enough to fall in to the part that wasn’t covered.”
“I think they drained it (the slurry pit) 60cm and he popped up then.”
Ciara found out that Diarmuid's body had been recovered through Facebook.
“I actually read it online before I got a phonecall, I read it on Facebook. Some newspaper had it up. He was found at 4.30pm no-one rang me until 6.30pm.”
When asked if she was angry about the way she found out Ciara said, “there was a lot of mistakes made in the whole thing.”
However she made it clear that she isn’t reaching out to make criticisms but rather to express her gratitude to the public for their help and support.
Diarmuid Twomey had been missing since December 20 2015, his body was recovered January 28 2016.
Listen to the interview with Ciara Byrne below. Credit to Cork’s RedFM.
Read the original report here.
