‘Motherhood was Betty’s true vocation’: parish mourns woman found dead in hotel bedroom

A MOTHER of five who was found dead in a hotel room in Galway earlier this week was the ‘very essence of life’ and a much-loved parent and grandmother, according to her local priest.

Father Jeremiah O’Riordan, of Donoughmore, Co. Cork, said that Betty Harrington, 64, was an active woman who utterly embraced life. He said: ‘Betty was always walking and cycling. She was a very lively person who was as fit as anything, involved in hill walking and set dancing.

‘She was a great mother. That was her true vocation. Her children are all grown up now. She was a childminder. A woman was telling me at Mass that if Betty was minding your child you knew the child was being minded.

‘The kids would always be out cycling, running and walking.’

Fr O’Riordan said parishioners were yesterday attempting to ‘comprehend and come to terms’ with the loss of Ms Harrington.

‘She was a very positive person who spoke well of everyone. At Mass the other night someone heard that it was a Betty Harrington who had died and we didn’t know if it was our Betty. People were in clusters trying to understand it. She was a lovely person.’

Ms Harrington is survived by her husband Donal, known as Dan, and her five children, Debbie, Jennifer, Donna, Daniel and Anne; her grandchildren.

Gardaí and the Health and Safety Authority are awaiting the results of a postmortem carried on Ms Harrington. Her body was discovered at the Connemara Lake Hotel in Oughterard shortly before noon on Monday.

She was among a group of walkers who were staying in the area for a few days. Ms Harrington was an active member of a hillwalking club in Bishopstown on the southside of Cork city regularly explored the countryside.

Two other hotel guests received treatment at UHG on Monday after they became unwell.

They were subsequently released from hospital. Guests at the hotel were evacuated amid concerns that carbon monoxide may have caused the death.

The results of the postmortem on Ms Harrington have yet to be released. However, the death is not being treated as suspicious. The hotel that Ms Harrington was staying at released a statement on their website.

It said: ‘The Connemara Lake Hotel confirms that a guest tragically passed away while staying in the hotel over the weekend.

‘Our thoughts and prayers are with the deceased, their family and friends.’

Ms Harrington will repose at her daughter Donna Lane’s residence in Rylane, Co. Cork, today from 4.15pm to 7.15pm followed by removal to St Lachteen’s Church, Stuake. A requiem Mass will take place at 12.30pm tomorrow followed by private cremation.