‘I’ll try,’ Ann said. ‘Well, somehow, she got involved in the Film Festival, during her Transition Year at school, doing what exactly I’m not sure but it was short films coming out our ears for a long time, I can tell you. It was arranged by her art teacher at the time, Mr O’Donnell, Colm is his first name but he was always Mister in this house. The week of the festival she was off school and was in at the festival all the time. She had a couple of pals that she was close to, Jessica Murphy and Aifric Sheehan. And there were a few boys she was friendly with too, Joey O’Connor was one of them. I don’t have addresses for all her friends, though I have Jessica’s. And there could be more of them, maybe, from other schools.

‘I saw very little of Deirdre during the week of the festival – she was gone in the morning and back in the evenings exhausted, with nothing to report about what she had been up to for the day. I put it down to the teenage thing, kind of let her off to spread her wings a bit. She told me that everything was none of my business and that she was grown up and well able to take care of herself …’

At that, Ann smiled ruefully and shook her head.

‘Try living with that, Finn. You see, at the time Sean was away a lot, driving the lorry, doing as much overtime as he could get away with. We were still thinking of university for Deirdre at that stage. He had a run to Dublin, would collect up there again and would head for Letterkenny after that so he could be away three or four days on the trot and when he came home Deirdre was always on her best behaviour, no cheek for Dad.’

She smiled again.

‘Deirdre could wrap him around her little finger. And me too, if I’m honest. She was so precious …’

I would have to press harder if I was to get any useful information.

‘Was there a time before the attack when you noticed anything different, maybe something that made you uneasy?’