Gardaí: No foul play in death of ex-TD’s daughter

GARDAÍ have ruled out foul play following the sudden death, most likely from natural causes, of the daughter of a former TD.

The body of Treasa Moynihan, who was in her early 20s and the daughter of ex-Fianna Fáil TD Donal Moynihan, was found at her home near Ballymakeera, Co Cork, on Wednesday evening.

The discovery was made by one of her brothers.

A preliminary postmortem was carried out on her body yesterday at Cork University Hospital by assistant state pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster. Further tests are needed to establish her exact cause of death.

However, Superintendent Vincent Duggan said gardaí had ruled out foul play.

“It appears to be a tragic and unexpected death of an apparently healthy young woman and we would like to extend our sympathies to the Moynihan family,” Supt Duggan said.

Her father, Donal, 67, was elected to Cork County Council in 1971. He won a seat in the Dáil for Fianna Fáil in 1982, but was defeated in the 1987 general election.

He was returned to the 27th Dáil in 1997 and held his seat in the Cork North-West constituency until last year. The redrawing of the constituency to include Ballincollig is widely credited with him losing his seat.

Donal Moynihan’s son, Andrias, is a serving member of Cork County Council.

He was co-opted onto the local authority in 2004 when his father was forced to resign his seat due to the dual mandate.

Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe, the local minister in the family’s constituency, offered his sympathy to the family last night and said his prayers were with them.

Cllr Alan Coleman, the leader of Fianna Fáil on Cork County Council, said his colleagues were shocked to hear of Treasa’s sudden death.

“Her father was a colleague of ours on the county council for many years and Andrias is a close colleague. This is an awful tragedy and out hearts go out to the family during this very difficult time for them,” Mr Coleman said.