Neighbours said last night they were “saddened and shocked” by the deaths of two brothers whose bodies were found at their home in Bluebell, west Dublin.
“It’s so sad. They were very private, quiet people,” said a woman who lived just a few doors from the house at Millrose Estate where Daniel and William McCarthy lived. Gardaí believe one of the brothers died several weeks ago while the other died within the past few days.
Their bodies were discovered in the house at about 1am yesterday.
“You would never see anybody coming to visit or going in and our of their house. They wouldn’t even look at you or say hello to you but then I believe they were both deaf,” the neighbour said.
“They wouldn’t have great communication skills so it meant they were kind of isolated and only had each other,” she said.
Boarded up
She said the men, who were in their 70s, and had lived in the estate for about 30 years.
“The windows at the back of the house were boarded up because it was near a field where people used to be throwing stones in to it,” she said.
“It’s very sad to think one of them could have been dead in the house for a while,” she said.
Another man who lived a few doors up from the brothers’ house said people in the estate were “in shock” at their deaths.
“Some friends of theirs who used to visit them over the years had been trying to get in touch with them and they couldn’t contact them. The brothers were deaf so it was probably difficult to stay in touch with them,” he said.
“Because of their disability, they had very little communication with neighbours and kept themselves to themselves anyway,” he said.
“Nobody would have been calling into visit them because if you didn’t have sign language they wouldn’t have understood you. There used to be a nun that called to them who had sign language but she died a few years ago,” he said.
“There was a church newsletter that people around here used to deliver and that was one of the only ways they had communication with the wider community,” the neighbour said.