The name Cregg Wood still holds chilling memories for the people of the east
Clare village of Whitegate more than three years after the terrible events that occurred there. Many people come here from abroad to find contentment and peace.
Their haven was shattered on a late spring day when Whitegate burst on to the public's consciousness for all the wrong reasons.
This is hurling country, and the county flags flew yesterday from village poles, signifying that Clare hurlers are, hopefully, on the march to Croke Park.
Outside the village, TV and print journalists were gathering to view again the spot where the tragedy was enacted, the place where Imelda Riney and her son, Liam, were murdered and where, 150 yards away, Father Joe Walsh met his untimely death.
The Riney memorial is well tended in a glade just off Forest Road.
Whitewashed stones circle two white crosses and a wood carved figure of eight sitting on a wooden structure on which the names Imelda and Liam are painted.
Hanging from a branch overhead are chimes which ring out gently in the breeze.
It is the only sound to be heard, which makes it hard to comprehend that such an isolated place could be the setting for such an act.
Where Imelda and Liam lay has become something of a shrine. According to one local man "a path was worn to it . . . hundreds of people from all over were coming to it".
Mr Tony Muggivan, who looked after the young Brendan O'Donnell for a period, said he will be angry until the day he dies because of the life Brendan
O'Donnell led.
"I'm not angry that he is dead, but I am happy that he has it over. I'm very angry that three other people are dead."
He demanded that proper facilities be set up in schools where children like the young Brendan would be picked up at an early age. "I think he worked something to get extra tablets. He was too fit to have died from natural causes and I think he committed suicide."
Coillte forest manager, Mr Michael Fogarty, who was involved in the search for the Rineys and Father Walsh, said: "People from all over have been here and many just came to pray. The feeling around here now is really one of relief."
The O'Donnell family were not commenting yesterday and local people have been reluctant to talk publicly about their feelings. One person, however, referring to the Riney memorial, recalls that Brendan O'Donnell's mother's grave was a kind of shrine to him as it was a place where he went to cry after her death.