THE TRUTH AT LAST AFTER 500 DAYS
Inquest to hear of murder-suicide horror
FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2016: Clodagh and Alan Hawe share an intimate evening meal to bring their holiday in Venice to an end before they return to work as teachers the next week. SUNDAY, AUGUST 28: Alan Hawe washes the family’s two cars in the afternoon before they visit Clodagh’s mother Mary Coll in Virginia, Co Cavan, that evening.
Clodagh arranges to visit her mother the next morning with her youngest son. On their return the boys go to bed, while Clodagh searches the computer for family holidays for 2017.
Her husband gathers weapons including an axe he had stored in his car and attacks and murders his wife.
He kills his sons before transferring money from shared bank accounts to one solely in his name.
Hawe leaves a lengthy prewritten letter trying to explain his actions and pins a second, bloody note to the back door. He takes his own life by hanging. MONDAY, AUGUST 29: After Clodagh’s failure to turn up to see her mother, Mrs Coll calls the home and mobile phone THE inquest into the murders of Clodagh Hawe and her three children is due to start at 10am today at Cavan Courthouse.
Clodagh, 39, was killed by her husband Alan Hawe, before he went upstairs in their home and murdered their sons, Liam, 14, 11-year-old Niall and Ryan, six. The 40-year-old then
numbers several times before driving to Castlerahan.
She finds a note pinned to the door warning the finder not to enter but to call gardai. 10.45AM: A neighbour helps Mrs Coll and calls Monaghan Garda station to raise the alarm. Two officers arrive at the home and discover five bodies. Evidence showed Clodagh had fought for her life downstairs. Alan Hawe is found hanging. Their three sons are discovered, still in their pyjamas, in two bedrooms upstairs.
3.15PM: Gardai release a statement confirming the discovery of five bodies. killed himself. The murder-suicide in August 2016 outside Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, left the country reeling in shock.
Now, nearly 500 days later, Clodagh’s family and friends hope the truth will be revealed in the joint inquest.
This timeline of events chronicles the events before and after that fateful day.
5PM: Garda Assistant Commissioner for the Northern Region, John O’driscoll said the incident was being treated as a murder/ suicide and there was no evidence a firearm was used. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1: Gardai reveal partial elements of Alan Hawe’s three-page letter to his parents and Clodagh’s family. Some information is withheld as a matter of sensitivity. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2: The remains are taken to Finnegan’s Funeral Home in Cavan town where hundreds of people turn out to pay their respects to the family.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3: Funeral Mass takes place in St Mary’s Church, Castlerahan, Co Cavan.
The service is conducted by curate Fr Felim Kelly who tells mourners: “We are trying to cope with a tragedy beyond our understanding.”
SEPTEMBER: Gardai reveal the full content of the letters left behind by the killer.
Clodagh’s family begin a battle to have Alan Hawe’s body removed from the grave. OCTOBER: A wooden cross placed at the head of Alan Hawe’s grave is found to have been vandalised with “evil” scratched into its surface.
A surround is placed around the graves of Clodagh, Niall,
CLODAGH HAWE’S SISTER
Liam and Ryan to separate them from their killer. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1: Clodagh’s mum Mary and sister Jacqueline Connolly break their silence to reveal Clodagh and her children stood no chance as they were brutally slaughtered by the man they trusted most in the world.
Jacqueline said: “Now we know that in fact we’d never really known the real Alan Hawe, an evil, wicked man.” WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017: Alan Hawe’s body is exhumed from the family plot. The remains are driven to Glasnevin Crematorium in Dublin. It is revealed he requested that his ashes be scattered at sea. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30: Relatives of Clodagh and her sons guard their grave as a priest prays for their killer inside the family’s old church. A total of 25 people attend the service to remember the killer, including his parents Olive and Stephen. OCTOBER: Friends of Liam immortalise his memory by recording a song in his name called Taken Away (A Song For Liam – Virginia College).
We’d never known the real Alan Hawe, an evil, wicked man JACQUELINE CONNOLLY