Hawe family inquests: Pay attention

THE murders of teacher, Clodagh Hawe and her three sons, Liam, Niall, and Ryan, by their father, Alan Hawe, and his subsequent suicide, at a house near Ballyjamesduff, in Cavan, in August 2016, were a tragedy far beyond anything normal comprehension might compute.

The inquests into their deaths opened in Cavan yesterday. 

The details revealed — of how normal lives, like our own, ended in a nightmare — are utterly harrowing. 

So much so that one garda witness was overwhelmed as she gave evidence. 

Evidence given by another garda, the man who discovered the bodies, shows how such tragedy can spill over and mark the lives of those who work daily on the periphery of atrocity. 

We stand or fall by our capacity to respond, even repeatedly, with kindness and love to the worst this world can throw at us. 

It is difficult to forgive Alan Hawe, but we can respond by being alert to the dark forces at play in this entirely unnatural horror — especially at this time of the year, when an almost universal happiness is expected.

One man’s wellbeing is indeed another man’s question.