‘It’s nightmare stuff’ — Communities reeling after mum and kids killed in Fermanagh shooting

GAA clubs north and south have paid tribute to a family who were shot dead in their ­Fermanagh home.

Vanessa Whyte, her 14-year-old son James and her 13-year-old daughter Sara were gunned down in Maguiresbridge on Wednesday morning in what the Police Service of Northern Ireland believes was an attempted murder-suicide.

A man found at the scene with life-threatening gunshot wounds was airlifted to a hospital in Belfast, where police are seeking to interview him.

Ms Whyte, a popular Department of Agriculture veterinarian in Fermanagh, was originally from Barefield, just outside Ennis in Co. Clare, and played camogie for the local club, St Joseph’s Doora Barefield.

Her love of hurling and Clare GAA was something she kept close to her heart, Barefield residents told Extra.ie yesterday.

St Josephs’ Doora Barefield GAA club said it was ‘shocked and saddened to hear of the tragic passing yesterday of Barefield native Vanessa Whyte and her two beautiful children James and Sara in Fermanagh’.

It added: ‘The Whyte family have a long association with our club with Vanessa’s late father Joe part of our first-ever country hurling winning team of 1954. Her brothers Steve and Ivor also represented the club at all grades and among their honours were intermediate hurling championships in 1993 and 2016 respectively.’

After moving to the North, Vanessa joined St Patrick’s Lisbellaw Hurling Club, where James and Sara were also members.

The club in Fermanagh said all three were ‘active and beloved members… and will be desperately missed’.

Vanessa is survived by her mother Mary, as well as her sisters Geraldine, Regina, Anita and her brothers Ivor and Stephen.

The PSNI is continuing to piece together the family’s final moments. A 999 call that was made inside the home is also being processed.

It is understood that there had been no police callouts to the family home prior to the triple murder despite the PSNI earlier saying that there had been a ‘limited domestic history’ with the family.

Clare councillor and family friend Mary Howard described how the news had rocked the local area.

‘I only heard this morning about the Clare connection to the Fermanagh tragedy and everyone here is in shock,’ she commented. ‘No one can believe that a young mother and her two beautiful children could lose their lives in such circumstances’

Two women standing outside Hassett’s Bar in Barefield yesterday also spoke of Vanessa’s love for her family and the GAA.

One said: ‘Everyone here knows the Whytes. They’re part of the furniture here.

‘It’s horrible I mean, just horrible. Those poor children and their mother gone in an instant. I just don’t want to imagine it. It’s nightmare stuff.’

Vanessa attended Coláiste Muire in Ennis from 1993 to 1998 and left with top honours following her Leaving Cert. From then, she went to UCD from 1998 to 2003.

‘We are deeply shocked by the news,’ Coláiste Muire principal Jean Pound said. ‘Our thoughts are with Vanessa’s family at this most difficult time.’

One Fermanagh source told Extra.ie that Ms Whyte and her husband had been separated for several years, which is why she was known by her maiden name.

‘He still lived with them in the house, with the kids. It was still a relatively cordial relationship from the outside’ the source said.

‘Vanessa, James and Sarah would have been very tied into the community. Vanessa, being from Clare, obviously had a strong link to hurling and would’ve been involved with the local GAA. But the father wasn’t a loner by any means.

‘He’d be seen in the pub and around the village [Maguiresbridge in Fermanagh]. He was a pleasant fella and everyone who was friendly with him are obviously completely floored by this news and couldn’t believe it when they heard.’

Vanessa became the 28th adult woman to be violently killed in the North since 2020.

Katrina Godfrey, permanent secretary at the North’s ­Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, said they deeply regret the death of their colleague.

Additional reporting by Jamie McCarron.