Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

A section of the New Road near Thomondgate in Limerick. Google Maps

'We would have spent Christmas together in her house': Heartbreak over Limerick woman found dead in suspicious circumstances

Gardaí have been granted an extra 48-hours to forensically examine the home.

Updated at 9.29pm

A SISTER OF a pensioner found dead in suspicious circumstances, fought back tears today, as she revealed they were both to spend Christmas Day together in the house where her beloved sibling’s body was discovered.

Helen Carmody said she was “in a daze” since her older sister Rosie Hanrahan (78) was found dead by family members in her Limerick home yesterday.

Gardaí are treating the woman’s death as murder.

“All I want is to see her,” Carmody said, clutching a photograph of Rosie, at her home in Kileely.

Carmody said she had faith the gardai would find the right answers as to how her sister died.

CCTV footage from security cameras near the house, at New Road, Thomondgate, was being harvested all day by gardaí. House to house garda enquiries in the area also continued.

“I’m putting my faith in the cameras,” Carmody said.

She smiled:

We always spent Christmas together in her house because she’d cook dinner. I wouldn’t cook it right, she’d tell me.

“We would have spent Christmas together in her house. It’s only when (Christmas) happens that (this) will really sink in. It doesn’t feel real now.”

She said Rosie’s body was discovered by their other sister Evelyn and her husband Jimmy when they called yesterday afternoon to return a handbag Rosie had left behind at their house.

“I’m in a daze. It’s like it has not really happened.”

“Very careful”

She said:

“(Rosie) was very careful going to bed. She’d lock all the doors.

“She’s going to be a big loss to all of us. I will miss her dreadfully. I can’t make sense of it really.

“She never did anything to anybody. She was very good to everybody and then this.

Everybody liked her. Rosie was very good living. She loved the gardening and she went to bingo.

Carmody said Rosie felt secure in the home she had resided for the past 40 years, and that she did not have an alarm installed.

“She was very independent. She wasn’t a nervous person, as long as everything was locked up and she went to bed, then she was grand.”

“An appalling tragedy”

Fianna Fáil TD, Willie O’Dea, a family friend, visited the scene.

“It’s just appalling tragedy. There are no words to describe it really,” he said.

The Thomodgate community were distraught at the loss of the popular pensioner.

Patricia Hayes, whose home adjoins Ms Hanrahan’s, said she was in deep shock:

“It’s hard to believe Rosie is gone. It’s devastating. I hope she’s resting in heaven with her husband Mike.”

Another neighbour, Julie Butler, wept in her sitting room as she tried to come to terms with the news:

What can I say about Rose. She was just a lovely lady. She helped out everyone.

Garda forensic officers and a DNA scientist all day combed Ms Hanrahan’s house for clues as to how she died.

Superintendent Derek Smart, Henry Street Garda station, appealed for anyone with information that may help them to come forward in confidence.

Read: Garda probe launched after ‘suspicious death’ of elderly woman in Limerick

Read: ‘Maybe they were making a trunk call’: Gardaí discover passenger hidden in boot of car

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

View 22 comments
Close
22 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall Dunleavy
    Favourite Niall Dunleavy
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 8:59 AM

    No mention of middle lane hoggers? Merge onto motorway, move straight to middle lane, stay there. ( I know it’s probably just m50 with 3 lanes).

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Walker
    Favourite John Walker
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 9:17 AM

    @Niall Dunleavy: The article does mention middle lane Hoggeston Niall. It’s rampant!

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Hans Maas
    Favourite Hans Maas
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 8:21 PM

    And than there are: fog lights on a sunny day, no lights on a overcast, rainy or even foggy day or after sundown.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Hans Maas
    Favourite Hans Maas
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 8:12 PM

    Correct use of the motorway requires knowledge of the rules of the road in the first place and in second place some road engineering expertise. The most blatant and stupid violations of the rules of the road are: the right of way rules which absolutely no-one and that includes the poor excuses for rule enforcers ( the guards), parking on zebra crossings, parking on corners, bullying with the car as a weapon, ridiculously engineered round about a an junctions, and last but by no means least the absolute ignorance and sheer bad attitude and lack of consideration for other road users especially cyclists and pedestrians.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Hans Maas
    Favourite Hans Maas
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 8:17 PM

    And where in the rule book does it say that putting on your hazard lights gives you the god given right to double park, illegally park or just block the road?

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute mr non snowflake
    Favourite mr non snowflake
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 6:36 PM

    If people were to drive correctly there would be very traffic issues on the M50.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute mr non snowflake
    Favourite mr non snowflake
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 6:39 PM

    Putting on your indicator by the way, does not give you the right of way. If you hit another vehicle already in that lane you are cutting into, you are at fault.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Old Gabby Johnson
    Favourite Old Gabby Johnson
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 7:27 PM

    @mr non snowflake: snowflake

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Hans Maas
    Favourite Hans Maas
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 8:26 PM

    @mr non snowflake: you are at fault? According to whom the guy with the biggest mouth? The best lier, the cutest solicitor? When no one knows the rules including the so called law enforcers than the one at fault is always the one with the who is the least assertive.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James William Burke
    Favourite James William Burke
    Report
    Jul 29th 2020, 11:03 AM

    Overtaking on the Motorway, then pulling right in front of you as they lose their nerve, forcing you to drop back to safe distance. Happens constantly ;-(

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds