Eerie silence engulfs estate full of sorrows

As locals left flowers at the scene where efforts were made to revive James Casey Butler on Saturday, there was an eerie silence around the Tír Cluain housing estate yesterday afternoon.

Despite the wintry chill, it was the kind of day you might expect children to see making the most of their school holidays and kicking a ball, hurling, or wrestling on the expansive green that runs along the front of the estate, separating the homes from the River Owenacurra in which the tragedy unfolded.

Instead, protective parents still raw with shock, were understandably keeping their children indoors.