SHE wore it well. In her flowing Laura Ashley dresses and summer hats, Carole Ann Daly didn't look like your average heroin addict.

She was a middle class Church of Ireland girl from Swords, and few could have believed her life would end so tragically.

In St Michan's House last night, in Dublin's north inner city, where Carole Ann lived for the last two years, a young drug addict went hysterical. The children playing football between the clothes lines took little notice.

"Carole Ann wasn't like that she was quiet, refined, classy, says her friend Renee McGuinness, with whom she stayed. "She was like a porcelain doll, bin, with perfect skin. She carried herself well, her shoulders back, her long curly hair was blonde and natural."

She was well brought up, they insist. She told them she had taken flying lessons once, and she had worked as a secretary in a solicitors' office on Pearse Street.

Her friends believe it was the loss of her baby boy that drove her to drugs. She always carried a photograph of the infant, whom she had named Reece. He had been born prematurely and died when he was just a week old.

"She loved kids. She would never come into the house without bringing Jellytots and Smarties for my two kids. If she saw a baby, she had to pick it up and hold it", Rachel Howard explained.

Rachel discovered her friend was on heroin six months ago. Carole Ann went on a methadone programme before Christmas, but could not handle it and went back on heroin.

For comfort, she turned to religion, attending Church of Ireland services.

She will be buried as she had lived privately.