Margot Seery was remember as a “cool mam” in her daughter Niamh Holliday’s victim impact statement which was read at the Central Criminal Court yesterday.
Ms Holliday, who was 12 when her mother died, said Ms Seery “seemed to get long with everyone” and would help people “in whatever way she could”.
“In the end I suppose this was her downfall,” prosecution counsel Brendan Grehan SC read from Ms Holliday’s statement. “When she was alive, my mam was what I would describe as a cool mam.”
Ms Seery was from Rathkeale in Limerick originally but moved to Dublin in 1966 where she met and married Ms Holliday’s father. The couple were not living togther at the time of Ms Seery’s death. She lived with her daughter in a flat on Kenilworth Square.
The court heard on the evening of October 7th 1994 Ms Holliday said goodbye to her mother expecting to see her in a few days but “unfortunately this didnt happen.”
“On Saturday October 8th I called my mam in work to see how she was. They told me she hadn’t turned up for work, this was really odd as she loved working in the local betting office.”
Ms Holliday recalled her father leaving her with a neighbour and then seeing him walking with a nun at which point she “knew something was wrong”.
“In the house she then proceeded to tell me that god had taken my mam,” the statement continued. “Little did I know that god had not taken her but it was at the hands of another person. This was the day my life and my family’s life changed.”
Ms Holliday said in the statement she believed her mother died from asphyxiation due to inhalation of vomit for close to 20 years and on account of this believed she was an “irresponsible parent.”
“I hate that I had that anger towards her for so long and none of this was her fault,” Mr Grehan read.
A victim impact statement read on behalf of Ms Seery’s brother Pa Guinane said the family had for 20 years believed Ms Seery “caused her death”.
“We were very angry with her for the upset she had caused her mother and the rest of the family,” his statement said.
The court heard the family’s world was once again turned upside down in 2014 with “shock and disbelief” after Howard Kelly confessed to her murder.
Speaking outside court after sentencing, Mr Guinane said: “We are glad the court case is over, that Margot has got justice and her name has been cleared.”