Emer Terrace is a long row of red-bricked terraced houses on the way in to Dundalk from the M1. The terrace was built more than 100 years ago and has seen better days. Many of the houses are vacant and four in a row are for sale.
The house at the centre of the terrace has a Garda no-entry sign, which is the only evidence of its activity on the street in recent days. This is where the family of missing eight-year-old boy Kyran Durnin lived until May of this year. Gardaí entered the house on Monday, moved out the existing tenants (who have no connection with the investigation), and began searching it and the small back garden and patio area behind.
They appeared to have finished their search of the house by Thursday morning as the property was empty and there was no Garda presence at the door or outside.
Kyran and his mother, Dayla Durnin (24) were reported missing from their rented house in Drogheda on August 30th. The missing persons investigation for Ms Durnin has been stood down, but the search for Kyran has been upgraded to a murder investigation as gardaí are working on the presumption that he is dead.
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Former neighbours of Ms Durnin and her son said they never knew her or her family.
“I didn’t even know what the woman looked like. She was out there for three years and I never seen her. It’s an awful thing to happen down here,” said Marian Kiernan, who lives a few doors down.
She was the only one on the terrace prepared to give their name. Another neighbour said Emer Terrace is mostly now rented out and has a transitory population. She did not recognise Kyran’s photograph nor that of his mother, who is believed to be in the UK at present.
“You could have tenants who are there for a couple of months and then they move on. Most of the permanent residents around here would be very old,” she said.
The house in Emer Terrace is directly across the road from a Society of St Vincent de Paul shop. One of the workers said she recognised Kyran’s mother from coming into the shop with her two daughters but never saw her with the boy who is now missing.
“She came in here for about a year. It’s surreal. It’s like something off a TV show,” the worker said. She wondered, as many people are wondering, how a child could allegedly disappear for two years without the authorities noticing.
Garda activity had moved to a shared private garden at the back of Emer Terrace in Father Murray Park, which is an estate of bungalow houses built in the 1940s.
The dig site was between two adjacent bungalows on the corner. Gardaí were moving in and out of the site on Thursday afternoon.
At one stage a garda came out to fetch a chainsaw. A few minutes later the sound of branches being cut could be heard from the private garden.
A young couple, who live in one of the adjoining bungalows, said they did not know the family of Kyran Durnin. “I don’t want to comment on the case because I don’t know enough about it,” said the man.
In the second house the resident, an elderly woman, said “there’s a lot going on”, but declined to comment further on what is happening.
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