A 25-YEAR-OLD mother of one and her five-year-old nephew were killed early yesterday in a suspected arson attack on their family’s home in Cork.
A 22-year-old man was being questioned by gardaí last night in connection with the fire that claimed the lives of Helena O’Dwyer and her nephew, Ryan. Ms O’Dwyer had moved back into the family home on Nutley Avenue in Mahon after she was attacked in her own home last week.
Six other members of the O’Dwyer family including Ms O’Dwyer’s parents, Joe (55) and Helena (49); her daughter Courtney (5), her sister Dawn (22) and Dawn’s two children, William (4) and Katelyn (2) were also in the house when the fire broke out at about 3am.
Helena’s other sister, Josephine, the mother of the boy who died, was not in the house at the time. Josephine – who is expecting another child – was yesterday being comforted by relatives.
It is understood Helena O’Dwyer and her daughter had moved back to her parents’ four-bedroom council house for the weekend after she was assaulted by a man known to her when he broke into their home in Mahon last week.
All six survivors of the fire were taken to Cork University Hospital where they were treated for smoke inhalation. One adult was later discharged, but the remaining two adults and three children were all kept in for observation with their condition described as “stable”.
It is understood some of the family managed to make their way from the house after fire broke out in a downstairs room, but neighbours were prevented by smoke and flames from getting upstairs to where Helena and Ryan were asleep.
Two units of Cork city fire brigade attended at the scene. Using breathing apparatus, officers managed to remove the two casualties and attempted to resuscitate them at the scene without success before they were taken to hospital.
Fire brigade third officer Adrian Spillett said: “The house was severely on fire and we got reports that there were people possibly still inside, so we immediately attacked the fire and sent in search parties and retrieved a young woman and young child.”
After firefighters made safe the end-of-terrace two-storey house, gardaí took possession of the building and cordoned it off for Garda technical experts to begin a forensic examination to try to establish the cause of the blaze.
Gardaí suspect that a petrol bomb may have been thrown in through a downstairs window but were still awaiting the full results of the forensic examination before they could confirm this occurred.
At about noon yesterday, detectives arrested a 22-year-old man for questioning about the suspected arson attack. The man is from the Mahon area.
He was arrested on the South Main Street in Cork city centre under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, which allows gardaí to detain suspects for up to 24 hours. He was brought to Bridewell Garda station for questioning.
Gardaí also began to study CCTV footage from a number of commercial premises, including petrol stations in the area, while a team of detectives began door-to-door inquiries in the Nutley Avenue area to see if anyone had noticed any suspicious activity.
Gardaí also carried out a technical examination of a car found burnt out less than a mile away near Blackrock Castle but they were last night inclined to discount the possibility that the burning of this car was related to the suspected arson attack.
State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy was continuing last night with postmortem examinations on the two deceased, which was expected to confirm that both died as a result of smoke inhalation.
'It's shocking, a woman and a child dead on Easter morning'
THE DEATH of Helena O'Dwyer and her five-year-old nephew Ryan in a suspected arson attack was greeted with a sense of numbness and shock in Mahon on Cork's southside yesterday as locals awoke to the terrible news.
A group of women, all friends of the dead woman, gathered at the corner of the quiet cul-de-sac and watched as a Garda forensic team suited up in their white overalls and made their way under the Garda tape and into the end-of-terrace two-storey house.
A woman, who did not wish to be named, called to the young uniformed garda on duty and handed him a bunch of orange tulips to lay at the entrance to the badly scorched house.
"I used to live here before so I knew all the girls and when I heard the news this morning on the radio I just decided to come over to pay my respects," said the woman, her blonde hair tied back in a pony-tail to reveal a tearful face.
Martin Keenan and his brother Michael pulled up in their open-back truck. Their cousin Thomas Keenan is in a relationship with Helena's sister Dawn O'Dwyer and they had also known Helena, they said.
"The place got a bad burning alright. They must have been terrified. In the name of God, it's shocking altogether, a woman and a child dead on Easter morning," said Martin who learned about the tragedy when another brother rang to tell of what had happened.
Local Sinn Féin councillor Chris O'Leary, himself a victim of an arson attack five years ago, said the news had cast a pall of gloom over the local community as people felt a real sorrow for the bereaved family.
"This is the second tragedy to hit the family. About six years ago Helena's brother, William, was killed in a car crash on Monaghan Road. He was just 14 years old, so the family have been through their fair share of tragedy already," he said. "People here in Mahon this morning are stunned; they are shocked. On Easter morning, when most families are waking up to the excitement of children opening up Easter eggs, for something like this to happen – this really has knocked people for six."
Prayers were said for the dead and injured at Masses in Mahon yesterday morning with local priest, Fr Kazimierz Nawalaniec, who described it as a terrible tragedy which had left everyone shocked and saddened.
"It's very sad, a young woman and a little five-year-old child. It's absolutely so sad.
"We said prayers for the dead and bereaved at all Masses in the parish this morning and we will remember them in our prayers," he said.