Murderer's ashes to be buried in Cork

The ashes of a former oil-rig worker executed in Texas last week are to be buried in west Cork later this month.

The ashes of a former oil-rig worker executed in Texas last week are to be buried in west Cork later this month.

Robert Morrow (47), was executed on November 4th for the killing in 1996 of a local politician's daughter in Texas. His body was cremated near a state prison on Thursday.

The parish curate at Kilmurry parish in Cork, Father Martin O'Driscoll, said yesterday that before his execution, Morrow wrote to him thanking him for allowing his ashes to be buried at a cemetery near Kilmurry church.

Father O'Driscoll said a local funeral parlour would place a plaque on a nearby cemetery wall and he would arrange to have a cross placed at the burial site.

READ MORE

The burial was organised by Father Stephen Walsh, a Boston priest who travels to Texas once a month to minister to death-row prisoners. Father Walsh said Ireland meant a great deal to Morrow and that he kept an Irish guide book and copies of The Irish Times in his prison cell.

In the city of Liberty, near Houston, yesterday, Morrow's mother, Mary, said her son had written to her to tell that his remains would be transported to Ireland and that she respected his decision. Her late husband's family had emigrated from Ireland and settled in Louisiana, where Robert spent his early years.

"My husband's family was once McMorrow but it was changed since they came over from Ireland.

"He gave me a chart of the family. Robert was proud his family was from over yonder in Ireland," she said.

Morrow was one of five children in a home with an abusive father, according to his mother. She said he ran away to join a carnival and dropped out of school.

Father Walsh said Morrow told him he was 12 years old when he started taking cocaine and associating with prostitutes and the homeless on the streets of New Orleans. He was executed last week for murdering student Lisa Allison (21), while she was visiting her parents' home in Liberty.

She had taken her car to a car wash where Morrow worked. Samples of his blood were found on her car and her body was found in a nearby river.

Morrow was executed in Huntsville Prison after an unsuccessful petition to Mr Rick Perry, President Bush's successor as Texas governor. He was the first person to be executed in the US since Mr Bush's re-election.

Moments before his execution, Morrow accepted responsibility for the killing and asked for forgiveness from the Allison family.

Father Walsh said he knew Morrow for many years. He said he had matured greatly and had found inner peace.

"The night before his execution we held a Mass for him. He said he felt blessed because not many people knew the hour of their death and could not prepare for it."

Father Walsh had arranged for the ashes to be sent to Cork through a parishioner in Kilmurry who had been writing to Morrow.