Family fire deaths - Tragedy for Ireland as a community

SIGNIFICANT questions concerning the problems increasingly besetting Irish society today are again raised by yet another tragedy in a rural community, another senseless act of violence with all the hallmarks of a murder-suicide atrocity, another appalling series of events that have seen yet another young family wiped out.

It is easy to understand and empathise with the sense of numbness gripping the people of Clonroche in the Co Wexford village where the community is literally reeling with shock and horror at the violent incidents that occurred in their midst. But what people will find it hard to come to grips with is how any person could descend into such a spiral of madness as to kill those nearest and dearest to them.

Judging by the mounting evidence at the scene that is what happened during the hours of darkness last Friday night and early Saturday morning in the sleeping village. Reports that petrol had been spread on the ground floor and used as an accelerant in the fire are being investigated by the gardaí.