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Dublin child deaths: Mother charged with murder after three siblings found dead at home

‘There is only devastation, grief and anguish. Every breath is a struggle,’ father says

Samuel Osborne
Wednesday 29 January 2020 14:12 GMT
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Three children found dead in Co Dublin named

A mother has been charged on suspicion of murder after her three children were found dead in their home in Dublin.

The bodies of Conor, nine, Darragh, seven, and Carla, three, were discovered by police and their father, Andrew McGinley, in their home at Parson’s Court in Newcastle on Friday.

Their mother, identified as Deirdre Morley, was found on a nearby street before the children’s bodies were discovered.

Irish police said a woman in her forties had been arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of murder. She is due to appear before a judge in Dublin’s Criminal Courts of Justice at 4.30pm on Wednesday.

After Ms Morley was found near the house around 7.30pm on Friday, a concerned taxi driver took her home but she collapsed outside the house, the Irish Times reported. She was taken for medical treatment at Tallaght University Hospital.​

The paper said Ms Morley, a nurse at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, had been on leave from her job.​

Mr McGinley, the children’s father, spoke of his “devastation, grief and anguish” at their deaths.

In a statement issued through gardai, he said: “There are no words. There is only devastation, grief and anguish. Every breath is a struggle.

“Conor, Darragh and Carla are adored. They all had beautiful, bright futures ahead of them with family, friends and a community who love them.

“To all parents, cuddle your children whenever you get a chance. Tell them how much you love them as often as you can, spend every spare minute with them reading, playing and enjoying their wonderfulness.

“The future has now become our enemy but we will battle it every day to keep the memory of Conor, Darragh and Carla alive.”

Post-mortem examinations completed on the three children on Saturday reportedly revealed there were no obvious signs of injuries on their bodies.

The interim post-mortem results were not being published for operational reasons and further toxicology results were still awaited, the gardai said.

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