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LAST UPDATE | 8 Dec 2025
GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING THE death of a woman and child in a fire at a home in Co Offaly believe they were not the intended targets of the attack and were entirely innocent victims.
A double-murder investigation is under way after four-year-old Tadhg Farrell and his great-aunt Mary Holt, 60, died after a suspected petrol-bomb attack caused a fire to break out out at a home in Castleview Park in Edenderry on Saturday evening.
A woman in her fifties, understood to be Tadhg’s grandmother and Mary’s sister, remains in hospital in a critical condition after suffering severe burns.
Gardaí are examining a number of theories for the motive behind the arson attack.
It is believed that a recent fight between two men in an Irish prison may be central to the motive.
The fight took place between a man, who is known to gardaí and who is related to Mary Holt, and an associate of a well-known criminal figure in the midlands.
The associate of the criminal figure was badly beaten in the encounter and has since been moved within the prison for his own safety.
It is believed the outcome of the fight caused another man, who is also connected to the criminal figure, to launch the attack on the house.
The victims are understood to not have had any involvement in criminality.
It’s understood that four-year-old Tadhg had not been living at the property where the fire occurred and was being minded by his relatives on the night.
The house was quickly engulfed, and it appears those inside were trapped in the building.
Superintendent Liam Geraghty described it as “a reckless, callous and murderous attack on a family home”.
Emergency services extinguished the fire, but both Mary Holt and her grandnephew were pronounced dead at the scene.
The remains of the deceased were removed on Sunday and post-mortem examinations were carried out by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster.
The house remains sealed off as further forensic and technical examinations continue.
Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan condemned the killings, saying the attack “was designed to kill the inhabitants”.
He told RTÉ that there is “no place in a civilised society for such heinous violence”, adding that gardaí will “relentlessly pursue” those responsible.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the entire country was “shocked and numbed” by the “savage, callous, and reckless attack on a family home”.
Commenting on the incident, local Independent Ireland councillor Fergus McDonnell, who lives nearby, said the local community was in shock, and extended his sympathies to the family of the bereaved.
“I have concerns for the fact that it happened and have huge sympathy to family of the bereaved,” McDonnell said.
- With reporting from Andrew Walsh
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