Mother and son to be buried tomorrow

THE REMAINS of Eileen Murphy and her son Evan will be buried tomorrow following funeral mass in their native Churchtown, County Cork.

The bodies of the 26-year-old former factory worker and her four-year-old special needs son were brought to a Buttevant funeral home yesterday after post-mortem examinations were carried out on Wednesday afternoon by State pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy.

In what appears to have been a pre-planned murder and suicide, Eileen and Evan Murphy died on Tuesday after a 650-metre fall from the Cliffs of Moher. They had travelled from their home in Ballyhea, north Cork, to Galway on Monday, stayed the night, and then gone by excursion coach to the County Clare beauty spot on Tuesday morning.

They were last seen alive at 3.15pm that afternoon but were reported missing when they failed to return to the tour bus.

Their bodies were seen in the water shortly afterwards, brought back to the harbour in Doolin and later transferred to University College Hospital in Galway.

Eileen Murphy’s mother, also Eileen, travelled from her home in Churchtown to Galway on Monday evening with family members to identify the remains of her daughter and grandson. Her husband, Liam, who suffered a serious illness some years ago, remained at home.

The bodies of the two will be removed from O’Keeffe’s funeral home in Buttevant tonight at 8pm, to St Nicholas’s Church in Churchtown.