The grandfather of three children killed during a violent domestic incident at a house in Tallaght last year has described being asked to identify the bodies of his three grandchildren.
Lisa Cash (18) and her twin brother and sister, Christy and Chelsea Cawley (8) died after they were fatally wounded during the incident at their family home in Rossfield Avenue in the Brookfield area of Tallaght on September 4th, 2022.
Martin McDonagh told a preliminary hearing of an inquest into the deaths of the three victims how he identified their bodies in the resus room at Children’s Health Ireland in Crumlin at 3.35am, shortly after the fatal incident.
“I could see three beds. I looked at each of them and I told [the Garda] that they’re my grandkids,” he recalled.
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Mr McDonagh was accompanied by a number of female relatives to a sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Tuesday.
Garda Kevin Keane gave evidence of formally identifying the bodies of the three siblings to State pathologist, Dr SallyAnne Collis, at the Dublin City mortuary in Whitehall.
The coroner, Clare Keane, said post-mortem results had shown that all three victims had died as a result of “multiple traumatic injuries”.
Detective Inspector John Walsh of Tallaght garda station applied for an adjournment of the inquest under Section 25.2 of the Coroners Act, on the basis criminal proceedings in the case had been instituted.
Det Insp Walsh informed the coroner that a person was before the courts in relation to the three deaths.
Dr Keane granted the application and adjourned the hearing until a date to be fixed after criminal proceedings have concluded.
The twins, who had made their first Holy Communion a short time before their deaths, were pupils at St Aidan’s National School in Tallaght, while their older sister was a student at St Aidan’s Community School in Brookfield.
A brother of the three victims, Andy Cash (24), was arrested at the scene and he was subsequently charged with their murders.
The emergency services had been called to the house after their 14-year-old brother managed to flee the property and alert neighbours to what happened. He suffered serious leg injuries from a fall during the escape.
The DPP has already directed that the accused, with an address also of Rossfield Avenue in Tallaght, should go on trial over the three deaths at the Central Criminal Court.
The accused appeared before a sitting of Cloverhill District Court last week when Judge Cephas Power was informed that the book of evidence in the case is still not ready.
Cash was remanded in custody to appear before the same court on April 5th.