Angela Cunningham (63) was viciously beaten and left for dead by her nephew Nyal Tumelty (30)She was discovered in her home battered and bloodied 27 hours after the attackShe is now receiving round-the-clock care in a residential facility in Co Meath and is wheelchair-boundTumelty was out on bail at the time for the assault and false imprisonment of another woman
Angela Cunningham (63) was attacked in her Carrickmacross home by Nyal Tumelty (30) of Coolderry, Inniskeen in co Monaghan on April 22 2023, leaving her with life-altering brain injuries.
Tumelty was sentenced to 12 years in prison, with the final two years suspended.
Nyal Tumelty (30) left his aunt for dead after attacking her in her home in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan.
“She was a kind, caring, quiet woman,” her daughter, Louise Cunningham, told RTÉ Radio 1.
“Unfortunately, her kindness and her caring nature was all taken advantage of.”
Angela had just come back from a holiday in Salou in Spain with her sister and brother-in-law bearing gifts for her grandkids.
“She arrived home on the Thursday night. She came up to visit me in my home on the Friday and she said that she would be up again on the Sunday, that weekend, to visit my brother and his family,” Louise said.
When her mother failed to turn up at Louise’s brother’s house, he became suspicious. He decided to drive to her house to check on her having called her on her mobile several times to no avail.
Angela’s daughter, Louise Cunningham.
It was when he arrived at the house that it became clear that something terrible had happened to their mother.
“He got to the front door, and he could see that the door was not properly closed. So, he made his way into the house and she was found on the floor of her kitchen and it was a horrific state.”
Angela had been lying there, battered and bloodied, for 27 hours before being discovered.
“We got a call to say that we needed to get to the hospital quickly, that something bad had happened,” Louise said.
She headed to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda where she met her brother, aunt, uncle and cousin before other family members began arriving.
“Everybody was just sitting in the family room, just waiting for an update and waiting to get in to see her.”
She continued: “I suppose that there were so many of us in the family room at that time [that] the nurse and the doctors came in and said that only myself, my brother would be able to come and see her.”
Louise described the “traumatic” moment she laid eyes upon her mother in the emergency room as doctors were “scrambling” to keep her alive.
“When I saw her, I initially thought that we were actually brought into the wrong room because I did not recognise her at all.
“Her face, there was nothing, not even her nose, you couldn’t, her eyes, her ears, her entire head was so violently beaten that she was completely unrecognisable.”
It was only when a nurse presented Louise with a ziplock bag of her mother’s jewellery “covered in blood” that she could fully comprehend what had happened.
“I remember just the blood completely drained from me and I nearly collapsed,” Louise said.
Along with the rest of her family, Louise was perplexed as to who could have wanted to inflict such injuries to her mother.
She spent a month in ICU before being transferred to another ward where she spent a further six months.
Angela is currently receiving round-the-clock attention in residential care in Co Meath and is wheelchair-bound.
“She doesn’t understand. She can’t process information,” Louise said, adding that she gets easily agitated.
When it was revealed that the attacker was her own nephew, Nyal Tumelty, Louise said she could not believe it.
“I didn’t even know there was a danger attached to him. I didn’t know he was visiting my mother. He had no business in there as far as I’m concerned.”
Tumelty was out on bail at the time for assault causing harm and the false imprisonment of a woman in Carlingford, Co Louth.
Louise revealed that he used to make use of Angela’s car and would avail of lifts from her occasionally.
However, it is believed the unprovoked attack was fuelled by drugs. Louise reckons her mother “probably felt sorry” for Tumelty and she tried to help him on occasion.
“He had been on a bit of a binge between of alcohol and cocaine is what he had said at the time when he was arrested,” Louise said.
“The version of his events was that he had been out drinking and purchased cocaine and he was mixing both and then eventually made his way to my mother’s home.”
Describing the final sentencing of her mother’s attacker as “a hard pill to swallow”, Louise said her mother’s legal team reckon anything less than 15 years was inadequate.
“Violence against women – a lot of the time, it is people that they know who are doing this,” she said.
“If he had not have been out on bail at the time, we would still have our mother as she was. She would still be around. Her life would still be normal.”
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