Mum of woman murdered and raped in India is set to finally meet Taoiseach

THE mother of murdered Donegal woman Danielle McLaughlin will meet Taoiseach Leo Varadkar this week after having an earlier request denied because his office said she “was not an Irish citizen”.

Twenty-eight-year-old Buncrana native Danielle was found raped and strangled in the Goa region of India in March 2017.

Her mother Andrea Brannigan (47) had requested a meeting with the Taoiseach to seek assistance in putting pressure on the government of India to fast-track her murder case.

However, since Danielle — who was born in Glasgow but moved to Donegal when she was two weeks old and lived in Ireland for her entire life — was travelling on a newly acquired British passport, the Department of the Taoiseach said she “wasn’t an Irish citizen” and directed them towards the UK Government.

Her mother said she was glad she would now get to put some tough questions to Mr Varadkar.

“I have a lot of questions about what was sent to me and how I have been treated this last 18 months since Danielle died,” she said.

“I have got nothing from the Irish government except phone calls to ask me what is happenkilled ing with the court case. I have had no support whatsoever from them or the British embassy, except advice to get a lawyer which we had to pay for ourselves.

“Danielle had held an Irish passport since she was a child.

“She lost it while travelling in Australia in 2015.

“Her father was dying and she needed to get home quickly, so she applied and got a UK passport because the process was faster.

“She had dual citizenship, but had always travelled on an Irish passport.

“This denial of Danielle as an Irish citizen really broke my heart. I was heartbroken for Danielle, she was so proud to be Irish. I know she would have