Friends and classmates should be told truth about the tragedy

A consultant psychiatrist and expert on suicide has spoke of the necessity for the friends and classmates of murdered twins Thomas and Paddy O’Driscoll to be told the truth of what happened to them in an age-appropriate way.

Professor Patricia Casey, Consultant Psychiatrist at the Mater Hospital, said: “There might be a temptation to say ‘we won’t tell them what has happened’. But they do need to know that their friends won’t be coming back and they died in very sad circumstances.

“Work that has been done in countries where there are similar circumstances with mass killing of children, shows trying to keep things as normal as possible in terms of school etc is important. Closing down the school, apart from the day of the funeral, would not be possible. They may not do much work, they may just want to talk about their friends or ask questions of their teachers, but my advice is that ideally they should keep the school up and running.”