It is one of the more ugly tasks in journalism: trying to extract a quote from a bereaved family after a violent death. By the time I called Nicola Furlong's mother on May 25, she had learned that her 21-year-old daughter had been sexually assaulted and probably throttled by a stranger in a city 10,000 km away.
Her voice was weary but polite. "Let me give you another number," she said. It was for the parish priest.
Small Irish communities like the seaside town of Curracloe are as homogenous as any Japanese village. Most people share the same schools, churches and pubs, watch the same television programs and speak in an accent that visitors from outside the country might struggle to comprehend. The priest is still a respected, though diminished, local presence. The Furlongs are especially well known because the family runs a pub in the center of the town.