Suicide mother couldn’t get access to social worker

Neans McSweeney, Barntown, Co Wexford

Sharon Grace arrived at Wexford’s Ely Hospital by taxi at 7.30pm on Saturday, desperate for help. She called into the main reception with her daughters, Mikahla, four, and Abby, three, looking for a social worker.

Social services had called to her home the previous day, after it had been reported to them that she was suffering from depression since her marriage broke up at Christmas.

The hospital, which provides day surgery and some geriatric care, is the base for Wexford Town’s social workers. But the county’s 18 social staff only work Monday to Friday, from 9am to 5pm.

The area does not have an emergency social care service at night or weekends.

The Health Service Executive Eastern Region said it could not comment on individual cases but said that at night or at weekends the service can only be accessed through the GP Caredoc, out-of-hours services or accident and emergency services.

The revelation came yesterday as the bodies of the 28-year-old mother and her two daughters were laid to rest in the cemetery attached to their parish Church at Barntown, Co Wexford.

Mikahla and Abby’s father, Barry Grace, 38, said he bore no ill memory of his late wife and said he would always consider her a great mother. Nobody could have anticipated what happened, he said.

In a letter to mourners at the funeral mass read by his brother Liam, Mr Grace said he looked forward to seeing Sharon and his little girls again.

“When you were sick, no one knew. You didn’t give up. You never asked for help, though things were hard. That’s you Shar, you gave us 28 great years. We must sign off for now. But we will see you, Mikahla and Abby again. We will miss you forever and ever. We love you to bits always,” the letter said.

Sharon had been crying in the company of her sister, Lillian, the day she disappeared with her younger children. The sisters were due to have a “heart to heart” later that night.

But when Sharon’s eldest daughter, Amy, returned home from a girl guides trip on Saturday evening to an empty house, the alarm was raised. The three bodies were found in the water on Kaats Strand after 10am on Sunday, just 100 yards away from Ely Hospital.