Nora Sheehan's family say they are at peace after record murder trial concludes with life sentence
The Sheehan family told RTE's Prime Time that the verdict gave them long-awaited peace.
The family of Cork woman Nora Sheehan, who was murdered in 1981, have said the conviction of 74-year-old Noel Long for her murder last week has given Ms Sheehan and her family peace.
The guilty verdict in Long’s trial was delivered in the Central Criminal Court last week, concluding a 42-year search for justice and in the process making Irish legal history for the longest timespan between a murder being committed and conviction achieved in the history of the State.
Noel Long, who was 32 at the time of the murder, was sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment.
In the days following the conclusion of the three-week trial, two of Ms Sheehan’s sons, her sister, and her granddaughter, gave a moving and often emotional interview to RTÉ’s .
Ms Sheehan’s husband James died within four years of her murder. “It killed him. Until then he was bouncing,” said Ms Sheehan’s son, Jerry.
Speaking about the verdict, he added: “it gave her peace, it gave my father peace, it gave the family peace.”
Ms Sheehan’s sister Sadie moved to the UK prior to the murder, and she learned from a news report that her sister had been killed.
“I always listened to Radio Éireann, and you’d get the news,” she said.
“I heard this terrible news, and then I phoned home and I could not believe it.
“I just hope he rots in hell for what he did,” she said.
“This family has spent 42 years hoping that that day would come,” said Nora’s granddaughter Katie.
Nora Sheehan was raised in Crookstown and moved into the Cork suburb of Ballyphehane when she was married.
Nora worked caring for patients in a psychiatric hospital but she suffered a fall eight years prior to her death, and following that she developed several eccentricities, including a habit of waving at passing cars.
“Nora was Nora, she had her own individuality,” her son James told RTÉ Prime Time.
“She was fierce kind. Even back then if a neighbour died or anything like that, she'd always go to the homes and lay them out. She brought that with her from the country.”
Ms Sheehan’s body was found in Shippool Woods, more than 25km from where she was last seen alive.
Noel Long was a suspect in the early stages of the investigation into her death, and had multiple previous convictions, including for attacking women.
An attempt to prosecute him for murder was shelved in late 1981, following the sudden death of the pathologist who had conducted the post-mortem on Ms Sheehan.
A cold case investigation, and advances in DNA science, led to the trial and conviction last Friday.
While the trail was on-going, a man who had given a statement in 1981 saying he had been with Noel Long for several hours after Nora Sheehan was last seen alive also changed his story.
Noel Long lived in Cork in the intervening decades, most recently in Passage West.
Nora’s family also live in Cork and knew for 42 years that the prime suspect in the case lived in the same county.
“We had to live with it.” said Jerry.
“I suppose the only thing we had was - we have good neighbours. We all grew up together and everyone was there for everyone else.
Several gardaí who investigated the case in the 1980s, now aged in their 80s and 90s, gave evidence in the trial in recent weeks.
The family members thanked them, and other investigators and prosecution teams, who worked on the case through the decades.
The family said they were thinking of other families of murder victims.
“Every single piece of information helps,” said Katie, Ms Sheehan’s granddaughter. “It's never too late to get justice for your loved ones.”
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