Investigations begin as four people die in violent incidents

Teams of gardaí in three counties were last night investigating the deaths of four people in violent incidents.

In Co Mayo, the remains of a murdered elderly couple were found in their home in Irishtown, near Claremorris, yesterday afternoon.

The couple, named locally as Tom Fitzgerald, a painting and decorating contractor who was in his 70s, and his wife, Kitty, who was in her 60s, were found dead in their home about a mile from the village at about at 3pm.

They were last night described as “community stalwarts” and good neighbours.

Ambulance personnel and Garda officers arrived at the couple’s bungalow, which is in a secluded area about a mile from Irishtown village, shortly after 3pm, but both victims were pronounced dead at the scene.

Sources said they had sustained severe injuries consistent with being badly beaten. A third person at the scene, believed to be related to the couple, was suffering from injuries.

He was taken by ambulance to University Hospital Galway and it is understood he was later transferred to a Dublin hospital for treatment.

A man stabbed in the early hours in Clondalkin, Dublin, Robert Ellis, made frantic efforts to get help while bleeding to death; calling to a nearby house just after he was attacked at about 3.10am.

Mr Ellis (25), who survived a gun attack last year and had a large number of criminal convictions, was chased from St Mark’s housing estate by four people.

He was pursued from a nearby bonfire across Neilstown Road and into the back garden of a property at Liscarne Gardens, where his body was later discovered with stab wounds.

Gardaí believe he may have been attacked after a confrontation at the bonfire moments earlier.

Victim

In Longford town, a man in his 30s, from eastern Europe, was stabbed on Greatwater Street at about 11.50am. The victim was pronounced dead after being taken to the Midlands Regional Hospital Mullingar.

He ran into a local shopping centre after sustaining his injuries close by.

A 24-year-old man was arrested in connection with the incident in the area and an apartment in the town was sealed off for examination.

Longford Fianna Fáil councillor Seamus Butler said people in the town were in “shock” after the incident.

“Fatal stabbings may be commonplace in Dublin but this is a rare and shocking incident to have happened in a provincial town like Longford,” he said.