‘Not one of us slept that night. People will not get over it’
Neighbours in Tallaght honour three tragic victims
TEDDY bears, flowers, and candles sit outside the home where three young siblings died in a violent incident in west Dublin.
But the neighbours in Rossfield Avenue, Tallaght are trying to get very different images out of their minds – the horrific scenes that unfolded in the early hours of last Sunday morning.
Lisa Cash, 18, and her eightyear-old twin siblings Christy and Chelsea Cawley, died after the incident at their home.
It is believed that older sister Lisa was babysitting at the time they lost their lives.
Now, three local schools are united in grief, and are together trying to find a way to explain the deaths of three young people to classmates and friends and minds too young to grasp what happened in that home.
Last night, balloons were released into the air in their memory, while schoolchildren and friends broke down in tears as their parents struggled to find the words to comfort them.
The victims’ 14-year-old brother was taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries, and their mother, a woman in her 40s, was released from hospital on Sunday and is being supported by her family.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has expressed his ‘deepest sympathies’ to their family, and said
‘It was traumatic to see it all happen’
that the ‘terrible tragedy’ had ‘left the nation shocked and very saddened’, while Garda Commissioner Drew Harris described the deaths as ‘dreadful and traumatic’.
Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris said: ‘What we’re all reading in the newspapers and hearing on television and on radio programmes is just beyond a horrifically tragic and devastating scenario.’
‘Three young beautiful lives to be extinguished overnight... We think particularly of that community, but I think it’s something that has shocked the entire country.
‘Our hearts and thoughts and our prayers go to the family, to their poor mum and the 14-yearold boy, to all their neighbours, all their friends, to the schoolchildren going back to school today, where there’ll be two empty desks where beautiful twins only returned to school in recent days.
‘I think the whole nation holds all of them in our thoughts.’
Neighbours said they will never forget what they saw and heard in the early hours of Sunday.
One neighbour, who did not want to give his name, said he was watching TV when he was alerted to scenes outside.
‘I went outside and could see gardaí with their weapons out. We couldn’t make sense of what was happening. It was very traumatic to see it all happen.
‘They were a lovely, beautiful family. Our granddaughter sometimes played with the kids out on the street.
‘None of us slept that night. People will not get over this. The community is rocked badly, mentally and physically. The guards did really well that night. They should be given medals. And the paramedics fought and fought so hard to save them. Lisa was a beautiful young girl and she tried her best to save those kids.’
Outside the house are pictures of the three, showing Christy and Chelsea making their first Holy Communion, among the long row of floral tributes.
Another neighbour earlier told the Irish Daily Mail her daughter had only been playing with Christy and Chelsea two days previously.
‘It was the first day that I let her out to play around the corner – just down the road from their house.’
Her young daughter continued the story: ‘We played hide and seek down there. We had a good time. I can’t believe it – that they are not here now.’
Another neighbour, who also asked not to be named, told the Mail: ‘Their brother who was in the house went to get help. He is their hero. There are no words to describe what we saw and what happened.
‘The whole community will need counselling now.’
Another neighbour, who also asked not to be named, told the Irish Daily Mail said: ‘There are no words to describe what we saw and what happened. The whole community will need counselling now.’
The principal of St Aidan’s school, Kevin Shortall, paid tribute to Lisa, saying she was ‘a quiet, beautiful young girl, very diligent, hard-working, got on with her work, was a great support to her friends in times of trouble.
‘She is remembered as one of the most honest, genuine young people, full of integrity and no fuss, no drama around her.
‘I believe she was babysitting at the time, and that would have been something that she was just so good at.
‘She was the kind of person you could trust. That’s the person Lisa was.
‘We are all just meeting each other and shaking our heads and giving each other hugs and things like that. It’s a very difficult morning.’
Mr Shortall said he had liaised with the principal of the primary school that Christy and Chelsea had attended on how to respond to the ‘unprecedented’ tragedy.
On Sunday, the Brookfield Community Centre opened to allow people to gather and help them deal with the tragic news.
‘It doesn’t feel like real life,’ said Fianna Fáil councillor Teresa Costello.
‘We’ve lost three young, vibrant, beautiful lives out of our community, in the most unimaginable terms, and it’s going to be a really difficult road ahead.
‘People are numb. I think it’s
‘They saw it from their own houses’
not sinking in, but it’s there and it’s so raw for people and it’s something you never imagine is going to be on your doorstep.
‘The scale of what’s emerging in terms of the detail, you never imagine that’s something to happen, particularly to children, and the wider community here are well aware of what happened because they saw it.
‘They saw it from their own houses, from their gardens, from the road.
‘It’s important to remember the names Lisa, Chelsea and Christy. They’re the three most important people right now.’