‘A beautiful woman and a great mother’

SOME slight semblance of normality returned to the Killakee estate in Firhouse yesterday as local people tried to make sense of the tragedy that has struck their neighbourhood over the past few days.

Few people were hanging around the quiet residential area in stark contrast to 24 hours earlier, when it emerged that local resident Mary Keegan and her two children had suffered violent deaths in their home.

Little moved on Killakee Walk yesterday the sedate cul-de-sac where at some time over last weekend, the former beautician killed her two young boys, Glen and Andrew, before committing suicide.

Only the presence of several uniformed gardaí and a continuing taped-off area around the Keegan home betrayed any sign of the tragedy which had unfolded since the discovery of three bodies in the kitchen of the house on Monday morning.

A quarter-of-a-mile away, pupils at the junior national school, Scoil Carmel, played as normal in the schoolyard during a break.

Due to their ages, most were largely oblivious to the death of six-year-old Andrew, who was a pupil in first class.

School principal Ursula Martin said counselling services were available for any student or parent who might wish to talk to a psychiatrist on how to deal with the death of a friend.

A short distance away, classes at the senior national school, Scoil Treasa, where Glen Keegan was a fourth class student, carried on as usual.

School principal Maurice Curtin described the dead boy as "a beautiful child". "He was just a normal kid in every sense of the word," said Mr Curtin.

Classmates of Glen were not specifically informed by their teacher about the death of their friend. However, most had been told overnight by their parents and were also being helped to deal with the tragic events by school staff.

"All of us in Scoil Treasa parents, pupils and staff are deeply saddened by the tragic death of Mary Keegan and her two sons, Glen and Andrew.

"Offers of support have been pouring in and they are greatly appreciated," said Mr Curtin.

A senior psychologist from the National Educational Psychological Service Agency attended the school and spoke to a number of Glen's classmates separately in the company of their parents.

Both school principals said classes would carry on as usual as it was important to restore a sense of normality for the sake of the children.

Across the road in the Firhouse Shopping Centre, copies of daily newspapers were virtually sold out as local people rushed to read reports about the tragic events in their midst.

The few residents who ventured to speak to reporters were sympathetic about the fate that befell Ms Keegan and her sons.

"She was a beautiful woman and a really great mother," said one shopper who knew the dead woman. "People in the area just can't believe what has happened."

Bank employees of GE Capital Woodchester in Dublin city centre where Ms Keegan worked part-time declined to comment yesterday.

About a mile-and-a-half away from Kilakee, the elderly parents of Ms Keegan were being comforted by relatives and friends at their home in Ann Devlin Road, Rathfarnham.

It was the second tragedy to hit the family in the past decade as the dead woman's older brother, John Flynn, died several years ago from kidney failure after a long illness. The former beautician is survived by her parents and brother and sister.

One local man said: "It's very hard for the whole family as they were only just getting over John's death. How they will cope with the manner of Mary's death does not bear thinking about."