Farmer finds woman taxi driver's body in quiet lane

A black tarpaulin on a muddy track known locally as Tinker's Lane marked the spot where the body of Mrs Eileen Costello O'Shaughnessy (47) was found just before noon yesterday. The Garda fixed-wing surveillance aircraft was still circling overhead as detectives and uniformed gardai closed in on the scene, outside Claregalway village.

Up to 60 drivers who had worked with Mrs O'Shaughnessy at Galway Taxis had been assisting in the search since first light. Her car - a silver Toyota Carina - was found abandoned at midnight on the Tuam-Galway road.

In the townland of Knock doemore, nine miles from Galway city, a young local farmer was out checking stock when he made the grim discovery.

The narrow lane between two fields is behind a nursing home, about 100 yards off the Tuam-Galway road. Another local farmer had passed the laneway entrance a few hours before and noticed nothing unusual.

Shortly after midday a local curate, Father Michael Mulkerrins, arrived to perform the Last Rites. It appeared that the woman had been very badly beaten.

She was said to be fully clothed, but the moneybelt she normally wore around her waist was missing. It had been located in her car.

Several of Mrs O'Shaughnessy's colleagues from Galway Taxis were close to tears as they gathered to hear Supt Tony Finnerty from Millstreet station appeal for witnesses. Mrs O'Shaughnessy was a chatty, diminutive woman, and one of only a handful of female taxi-drivers in the Galway area.

She had worked for the company for about 2 1/2 years. Separated from her husband, Garda Tom O'Shaughnessy, who is attached to Millstreet, she was the mother of two grown-up children, Damien (24) and Suzanne (26). She had been living with her elderly mother in Corofin-Comer, Co Galway.

Speaking to reporters in Millstreet yesterday evening, Supt Finnerty outlined Mrs O'Shaughnessy's last known movements. At about 11.45 p.m. on Sunday, gardai had received the first report of the abandoned car, outside the premises of Lydon House and opposite the Wayside Restaurant on the Tuam-Galway road.

Mrs O'Shaughnessy had picked up a fare, bound for Claregalway, in the Eyre Square/Shop Street centre-city area at about 8 p.m.

It is understood there were signs of blood and hair inside the vehicle. An attempt had been made to rip out the meter, which had clocked up 17 miles.

Investigating gardai from Millstreet, supported by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigations, were undertaking house-to-house inquiries on the sprawling farmlands yesterday near where the car had been left and where the body was found.

Road checkpoints were also set up. There was no evidence of a sexual motive, Supt Finnerty said. "We are keeping a totally open mind."

He appealed for witnesses who might have seen something unusual in three main areas on Sunday between 8 p.m. and midnight: Eyre Square, where Mrs O'Shaughnessy picked up her last fare; on the Tuam-Galway road near the Wayside restaurant; and around Knockdoemore and Mervue.

Last night the Knockdoemore laneway was still sealed off as gardai awaited the arrival of the State pathologist, Dr John Harbison. A post-mortem examination will be carried out in University College, Galway Hospital today.