Mother and daughter, 8, die in blaze at family home

A MOTHER who would have celebrated her 44th birthday this weekend, perished in a horrific house fire along with her eight-year-old daughter in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Her family spoke of it as a ‘double tragedy’ for while they should have been celebrating a birthday, they also lost their only daughter, who was due to make her First Holy Communion this May in the local church.

Alice Connors, 44, from Woodview Drive, Adamstown, in South Wexford, and her eight-year-old daughter, Mary, perished in the bedroom as fire engulfed their home at around 2am.

Alice’s 17-year-old son, Eddie, who was in an adjoining bedroom broke open the upstairs window before jumping to the ground to raise the alarm.

He alerted neighbours to the situation, but there was little they could do to save the occupants of the house.

The house was completely gutted in the blaze which is believed to have started in an upstairs bedroom.

Eddie was removed to Wexford General Hospital suffering from back burns and injuries from the jump.

It’s believed that Alice, who was trapped in the upstairs bedroom with her daughter, managed to make contact with her husband, Tom, 47, who was out at the time, telling him of their plight.

As details of the tragedy unfolded it emerged that Alice’s two other sons, Jim, 21, and Johnny, 11, were staying with their grandmother nearby. Said a neighbour: “It was possibly the hand of God that prevented the entire family been wiped out.”