Waterford double murder victims identified

A man was being questioned by gardai today after the early-hours deaths of a middle-aged man and woman in locations five miles apart.

The 40-year-old man was detained near the coastal town of Ardmore, in Co Waterford, close to where the body of a woman in her mid-40s, named locally as mother-of-three Joan Power, was found at her home. She was reported to have been stabbed.

Ms Power was found shortly after the discovery of the body of a man, also in his mid-40s. He was said to have been pub landlord Mossie Curran. The body had gunshot wounds and was found outside the bar he owned in the village of Clashmore.

Mr Curran, a father-of-four, was understood to have been a prominent member of Waterford’s Licensed Vintners Federation and on the organisation’s national executive.

The arrest was made seven hours after the bodies were found, when gardai also recovered a shotgun.

Ms Power was believed to have been an employee of Mr Curran.