Gardaí probe three East Cork deaths
Two young girls were found dead in a house in East Cork this morning shortly after a man was killed in a nearby car crash.
The two - aged six and two - were found in their home just outside the village of Ballycotton at around 10.30am. A doctor and a priest were called to the house after the alarm was raised.
A man, believed to be the girls’ father, had died in a single-vehicle car accident several miles away on the Ballycotton to Shanagarry Road at about 9.45am.
A Garda spokesman said the dead man was discovered in a car which was destroyed in a fire after crashing into a tree.
The man who died was aged in his 40s and the owner of the Toyota Yaris which crashed about one mile from the family home.
No other vehicle was involved.
A Garda spokesman described the deaths as a tragic incident and said relatives and extended family were still being informed.
It is understood local Garda detectives spent some time attempting to contact the children’s mother, who had gone to work in Cork city this morning.
The two daughters were found in a room inside the house.
The office of the state pathologist was contacted this morning by gardaí after a doctor pronounced the children dead at the scene.
The assistant state pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, was due at the scene to carry out preliminary examinations. It is expected the bodies will be removed to Cork University Hospital later today.
Officers in Midleton were investigating both incidents this morning and the house remained sealed off.
Archbishop Dermot Clifford, the Apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Cloyne in Cork, offered his sympathies to the family.
“I am deeply shocked to learn of the tragic deaths of two children and their father in Ballycotton today,” the cleric said.
“My heart goes out to all concerned; the children’s mother, to the extended family, relatives and friends and to the community of Ballycotton and to the people of the whole parish of Cloyne.
“On behalf of the people and priests of the diocese, I offer my sincere and heartfelt condolences and I ask for prayers for the deceased and for those who are grieving.”
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