Family’s second tragedy as son stabbed to death

TRAGEDY visited a Co Tipperary family for the second time yesterday morning when their 35-year-old son was stabbed to death in a Clonmel apartment.

Thirteen years ago, they lost another son who was killed in a motorcycle accident on his 19th birthday.

Father-of-four Declan Molloy, originally from the village of Drangan in South Tipperary, who had been living in a flat on Mitchel Street, Clonmel, for 13 months, died after a violent incident sometime before 3am yesterday morning.

“He’s the second we’ve lost,” his grief-stricken mother, Margaret, said yesterday evening, while being comforted by relatives and friends at her home in Prospect, Drangan.

“Patrick died in 1994, on his 19th birthday. You just never know, when they’re going out, what’s going to happen.”

Mrs Molloy said her son was a “quiet, hard-working” man who was never in any trouble before.

He had four children with an ex-partner in London — Natalie, Kimberley, Sean, and Kieran — who were aged between five and 12, while another, Hayley, died in 1996 from meningitis, at just 10 months.

Mr Molloy had moved back to Ireland four years ago and was working on and off as a labourer in Clonmel. He was the sixth of 11 children.

“It’s a shock”, his father Jim said yesterday evening. “But it shouldn’t be, because this is happening every day of the week. It’s only when it happens to your own family that you realise.”

Gardaí in Clonmel were last night continuing to question a local woman in connection with the death.

The incident was reported by a local woman who called to the garda station, less than a quarter of a mile away from the scene, at 3am. Gardaí went to the flat and found the man with serious injuries.

A doctor was called but the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

A woman was subsequently arrested as a result of the death and, after receiving treatment at the nearby South Tipperary General Hospital, sometime after 4am, was questioned throughout the day in the local station.

The woman being questioned under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1994, could be held for up to 24 hours from the time of her arrest yesterday morning, for two more six-hour periods at the behest of the Superintendent, or another 12 hours on the word of a Chief Superintendent.

It is understood she is a native of the town and had met with the deceased on Tuesday night, while he was out socialising with a family member.

The crime scene on Mitchel Street was cordoned off and members of the Garda Technical Bureau arrived before 1.30pm.

Deputy state pathologist, Dr Michael Curtis, arrived after 2pm to carry out a post-mortem inside the apartment. The body was then brought to Waterford Regional Hospital for further tests.

Superintendent John McCann is heading the investigation.

Gardaí have set up an incident room in Clonmel and have appealed for anyone who was in the Mitchel Street area between 12am-3am to contact them on 052-77649.