THE family of a Galway mother who disappeared 32 years ago have issued a heart-wrenching plea for anyone with information to come forward.
Mum-of-seven Barbara Walsh, 34, was last seen by one of her daughters lying down on a sofa at the family home in Rusheenamanagh, Connemara on June 22, 1985.
Mrs Walsh’s devastated children were aged from 17 down to nine months old at the time of her disappearance.
Speaking on the RTÉ Prime Time programme, Jacqui Walsh – who was 14 at the time – recalled the last time she saw her mother over three decades ago.
"I woke up, and I just went down to the kitchen. Mum was asleep on the couch. So I tried to wake her up to see if she would go back to bed,” she said.
“She didn’t, so I just put a pillow under her head and a blanket on her. When I got up in the morning she was gone."
Jacqui added that she believes there are people still alive with “direct knowledge” of what happened to her mum.
Her sister Catherine said their mother would never walk out on them.
She said: “Mum wouldn’t walk out on us, on seven kids, there’s no way.
"Mum was a proud woman, she was a good mother.
Jacqiu Walsh describes the last time she saw her mother, in June 1985. Barry Cummins reports.#RTEPT pic.twitter.com/YE1s5hVjNm
— RTÉ Prime Time (@RTE_PrimeTime) October 17, 2017
"I’m sure someone does know what happened. It’s not too late for somebody to say something. It’s never too late.”
Following Barbara Walsh’s disappearance her husband MacDara continued to raise their seven children before his death in 2007.
In 2015, Gardai spent five days excavating the land around the family home but no trace of Mrs Walsh was ever found.
RTÉ Prime Time also went behind the scenes of a fresh Gardai investigation which has seen 70 witness statements taken as part of a review of the case.
The re-investigation is examining whether Mrs Walsh was murdered and if so, by who.
Detective Inspector Mick Coppinger said he believes that someone local to the Carna area of Co. galway could have information on the mother’s disappearance.
“Barbara’s children are still awaiting their mother to come home. People have moved on with their lives,” DI Coppinger said.
“They cannot move on, they need their mother. They need her back.
“They need to account for what happened to their mother.”
