Four women found in a house in Leixlip, Co Kildare last summer starved themselves to death, an inquest was told today.
The four, 83-year-old Frances Mulrooney, and her three nieces, Josephine, 46, and twins Catherine and Ruth, aged 51, were discovered by their landlord on makeshift beds in downstairs rooms of their home last July.
At first it was believed they may have been asphyxiated, but the inquest was told by a gas company expert that tests carried out in the house showed that the central heating system was working normally.
Gardaí said that while the heating was turned up and some doors and the chimney had been blocked, the ventilation system was clear.
Until their bodies were found, none of the women had been seen in public for four months.
The inquest heard of notes written by Ruth Mulrooney.
In one, written to Josephine, Ruth said they had not eaten for 36 days and appealed for "some medical intervention".
The note said none of them could have thought "our deaths would be so slow and while the idea of ascending into heaven together is a good one, we did not envisage this".
It added: "We must do something to get ourselves out of this slow, painful hell. There is no happiness or justice in earth; everything is transient."
The notes were not dated. But Ruth Mulrooney also wrote to two friends in letters dated June 12 - and discovered with a written request that they should be sent on - saying that the letters would be her last, and asking the friends "not to grieve for me".
She wrote of "going into a spiritual world" and said she would look down upon her friends. Only sections of the letters were read to the court on the instructions of coroner Dr Denis Cusack.
Deputy State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy said post-mortem examinations had shown that three of women had died from starvation, but that Frances Mulrooney may have died from pneumonia brought on by food deprivation.
She said their fasting was "probably deliberate," and they may have been dead for several weeks before their bodies were found.
The inquest was told that Mrs Mulrooney and her nieces moved to Leixlip after being evicted from their previous home in Dublin.
Initially part of their monthly rent was paid by the Eastern Health Board, but that arrangement was ended last March.
Landlord Trevor Burns was delivering a note telling the women to vacate the premises when he found the bodies.
The inquest jury returned a verdict of suicide in the case of each woman.
PA