Village in shock after woman is stabbed to death

THE SPECTRE of violent death came calling to a rural, isolated and previously peaceful corner of south Tipperary yesterday.

Joanne Mangan, a popular young woman from the village of Newcastle, was stabbed to death. And while the body of the 20-year-old lay in a morgue at the Regional Hospital in Limerick yesterday afternoon, her 23-year-old brother Eddie was fighting for his life at Cork University Hospital, the prayers of the community with him and the Mangan family.

From an ordinary family of farming stock, the Mangans are well respected around Newcastle and beyond. Joanne, Eddie and their seven siblings all attended national school locally, as well as secondary school in Clonmel.