Grey, cold sky reflects mood of mourning seaside townland

This beautiful part of West Cork can rarely have looked as desolate as it did yesterday — a grey and cold sky draped over the scene of an almost unimaginable tragedy.

Three miles out from Ballydehob, down swooping lanes with grass growing in the middle of the tarmac and out to the end of the road lies the McCarthy family farmhouse, home to Martin, Rebecca, and 3-year-old Clarissa.

Literally a stone’s throw away is the sea, eternally lapping up onto a shaley strip of beach maybe 200m wide — the place where gardaí believe Martin entered the water with his daughter in the cold darkness of Tuesday night.