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Helen O'Driscoll at the funeral of her 9-year-old twin boys, Tom and Paddy, in Charleville last year. Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland
charleville
'It's like looking at a living hell every day of the week' - mother on home where sons were killed
Helen O’Driscoll’s three sons died in a murder-suicide last year.
THE MOTHER OF a young man who killed two of his brothers has said she will never return to live in the house where they died.
Nine-year-olds Thomas and Paddy O’Driscoll were stabbed by 21-year-old Jonathan at their Charleville home in September 2014.
Jonathan’s body was found several hours later on the banks of the Awbeg River in nearby Buttevant.
His mother, Helen, told UTV’s Ireland Live today that she and her family have been living in a mobile home behind the house since the tragedy.
The house, which had been her home for six years, brought back too many memories, she said.
My kids are still inside there but they need to be let go. It’s like looking at a living hell every day of the week. It’s like trapped souls.
Change to law
Helen also called for a change to mental health legislation to ensure doctors inform parents when a family member is suffering from mental health difficulties.
If their family knew that they were sick, they could say: ‘Right, how are you today? Will we go for a drive? Will we do this?’
Unless they do, it is the other ones who are going to suffer. It is the mother with all her children the following morning. It is the woman that gets up and goes to work and comes home to find all her babies and her husband dead.
Jonathan, who had been diagnosed with a serious psychiatric illness, stopped taking his medication before the tragedy.
It was not until the inquest into the deaths of her three sons that Helen realised how ill he was.
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