Community takes O’Driscoll family into its embrace

The school commute from Charleville to Banogue National School took in a chilling new sight on a balmy autumn morning.

On their way to school, children saw their friends Paddy and Thomas’s house in Deerpark, to the north of Charleville on the main Cork-Limerick road, tied up in blue and white crime scene tape, surrounded by garda cars.

Outside the rural school, parents discussed how best to explain to their sons and daughters why there are now two empty desks in their classroom.