Gardaí were last night continuing to question a 39-year-old woman following the discovery of a man's body in a flat in the centre of Clonmel, Co Tipperary in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Gardaí discovered the body of Declan Molloy at about 3am yesterday when they called to the flat he had been renting for the past 12 months on Mitchell Street, just 150 yards from Clonmel Garda station. He was 35 and a father of four.
Gardaí were alerted after a woman went into Clonmel Garda station shortly before 3am to report an incident in the flat. The woman had some injuries, was bloodstained and gardaí immediately went to the flat.
They discovered Mr Molloy with a series of stab wounds to the head and upper body in the sitting room area of the first floor flat where he lived alone. A local doctor was called, but Mr Molloy was pronounced dead at the scene.
Supt John McCann launched a murder investigation. A woman was arrested under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. Gardaí suspended the questioning of the woman for a period to allow her to be brought for treatment to St Joseph's Hospital in Clonmel, where she received stitches to a number of minor wounds.
She returned to Clonmel Garda station shortly before 11am and her period of detention was extended by 12 hours at about 5.30pm.
The murder scene had already been cordoned off and members of the Garda Technical Bureau from Dublin began a forensic examination at about 1pm.
Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis arrived at 2.30pm and carried out a preliminary examination before Mr Molloy's body was removed to Waterford Regional Hospital, where a post-mortem confirmed he died from stab wounds.
Supt McCann said gardaí are particularly anxious to speak to anyone who was in the area between midnight and 3am and heard or saw anything unusual.
Mr Molloy was a native of the small village of Drangan, to the north of Slievenamon, between Fethard and Mullinahone.
He had returned from the UK approximately three years ago after separating from his partner, and it is understood that gardaí yesterday relayed the news of his death to his ex-partner and children via British police.
Mr Molloy was the eldest in a family of 11 children of James and Margaret Molloy who suffered another tragedy a number of years ago when another son, Patrick, was killed in a motorcycle accident in the locality.
Drangan parish priest Fr Tony Lambe said news of the killing had come as a big shock to the local community, many of whom learned of the death as they attended Mass at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the village. "The news came as a huge shock to people this morning - our thoughts are with the dead man's family and we pray both for him and for everyone else caught up in this terrible tragedy," Fr Lambe said.
Yesterday afternoon Mr Molloy's brother John came to lay a bouquet of flowers outside the building where his brother was killed as other members of the family gathered to comfort each other at a relative's house in Clonmel.