Ireland has been shaken by the stabbing deaths of a teenage girl and her 8-year-old twin siblings—allegedly carried out by their adult brother, who threw the two younger victims out the window.
Murder is rare in Ireland, and the brutality of the triple homicide in Dublin and the age of the victims brought attention from top government officials, with Taoiseach Micheál Martin saying it “left the entire nation shocked and very, very saddened.”
Police have charged Andy Cash, 24, with three counts of murder. Appearing in court late Monday, he answered “no comment” to each charge. Authorities have not disclosed a motive but Cash reportedly had threatened the family in the past.
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Witnesses told local reporters that a 14-year-old boy jumped out a window to escape the frenzied attack and raised the alarm about the carnage unfolding at the house.
Lisa Cash, 18, and brother and sister Christy and Chelsea Cawley were all stabbed multiple times; Cash was found at the bottom of a staircase and the twins were hurled from one of the smashed windows, the Irish Independent reported.
A baby inside was not harmed, and the children’s mother, Margaret “Twink” Cash McDonagh, was apparently not home at the time.
According to The Sun, McDonagh sobbed openly at a church prayer service for her children on Tuesday evening. The siblings will be buried together after a funeral on Friday.
Ireland’s top cop said officers who responded to the scene—where they engaged in a standoff with Cash before storming the home and arresting him—were traumatized by the violence.
“I’ve spoken to some of the guards who initially responded, and it has to be said, it’s just one of the worst incidents that I’ve heard of across my service,” Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said.
“We’ve put in place appropriate support for them, but we’d also acknowledge the trauma visited upon the local community and that can’t be underestimated either. We’re very much there to support the community and to offer reassurance.”
