Party ends in tragedy as fire kills siblings
Mattie Joe Gleeson, 67, perished in the blaze which gutted the home he shared with his sister and full-time carer, Mary, in Ballinahroch, Killnoscully, in the early hours of Sunday, October 17 last. Just hours earlier, Mary, 65, and hundreds of neighbours had been celebrating the arrival of the Liam McCarthy Cup in the village following Tipperary’s win over Kilkenny in the All Ireland hurling final a few weeks earlier.
An inquest into Mr Gleeson’s death was previously heard in Tipperary.
At the inquest yesterday into Mary’s death, Cork City Coroner’s Court was told she survived the fire but died from her injuries in Cork University Hospital (CUH) on November 7.
The inquest heard how Mary had been in Ryan’s pub on the Saturday night, enjoying the celebrations and had helped serve tea and sandwiches to the revellers.
She drove several friends and her sister to their homes at around midnight and was seen entering her home at about 12.10am.
In his deposition, taxi driver Pat McGrath said he saw sparks flying into the night sky from the Gleeson home at about 4.30am.
He raised the alarm and arrived at the house to find it engulfed in flames.
“I went to the back of the house, by the gable end, and the side door was burned through,” he said.
He said tiles began to fall from the roof and he feared for his safety.
Another witness, John Pat McGrath, also tried to get into the house.
“I could see the fire was in all rooms. Tiles, rafters, the roof were all ablaze,” he said in his deposition.
Fire crews from Nenagh and Newport arrived on the scene at 5.20am but the fire had taken hold and the roof had collapsed.
Fire-fighters wearing breathing apparatus entered the house a short time later and found Mary lying unconscious and badly injured near a back door.
They found Mattie’s body lying on a bed in his bedroom. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Assistant state pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said Mary suffered severe burns to 40% of her body, and died from multiple organ failure and complications arising from the burn injuries.
Garda Donal Coughlan said the fire damage to the house was so bad that forensic experts were unable to establish the exact cause of the fire. But they did determine it started near an electrical socket in Mary’s bedroom and that it was most likely caused by a fault in one of three appliances found nearby — a tumble drier, an iron, or an oil-filled radiator.
Stacks of old newspapers found nearby would have fuelled the blaze.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.
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