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LAST UPDATE | 23 Jul 2025
A “CLOSE KNIT” Co Fermanagh community has been “shocked to the core” and left “totally heartbroken” after the deaths of two children and a woman in a shooting incident this morning.
Local Sinn Féin MP Pat Cullen visited the scene of the incident in the rural village of Maguiresbridge this afternoon and described the community as “salt of the Earth people”.
“It’s hard to find words to describe how we all feel,” Cullen told The Journal on the quiet road close to the police cordon.
“It’s such a tragedy to hear that a mother and two children have lost their lives, and another person is seriously injured,” added Cullen.
Sinn Féin MP Pat Cullen at the scene in Maguiresbridge, Co Fermanagh where a mother and two children have been killed. I also ask her about the toll this can have on first responders, in light of her former role as general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/y18FMuTaIV
— Diarmuid Pepper (@Diarmuid_9) July 23, 2025
Beyond the police cordon on the Drummeer Road area, forensic officers in hazmat suits have been working at the scene of this morning’s incident.
The property is on a quiet road in a secluded area, surrounded by farmyards and fields full of cows.
The only sounds come from birds and cows, and dogs barking in a distant field.
At around 7.50am, the PSNI received a call about an incident in Maguiresbridge and officers from the nearby Enniskillen Police Station responded.
Superintendent Robert McGowan, District Commander for Fermanagh and Omagh, said the alarm was raised by a phone call made from the house where the incident was taking place.
He added that when officers arrived on the scene, the incident was “ongoing” and that two people were pronounced dead at the scene “despite the best medical efforts”.
“As you can appreciate, it’s a very harrowing scene for all involved,” he told reporters.
He added that there is a “limited domestic history involving the people concerned” and that this is “certainly one line of inquiry that detectives will take forward”.
He confirmed that all four had gunshot wounds and that they were “all from the same household”.
An adult woman and two children – a boy and a girl – were killed in the incident.
A fourth person, a man, remains in a serious condition in hospital.
Meanwhile, Cullen said she was also “thinking about all the school friends of those two children, and what that must feel like for all of them, particularly just at the beginning of the school holidays”.
The PSNI has also appealed for people not to speculate as police investigations continue.
“Out of respect for families, it is so important that people don’t speculate,” said Cullen.
“We need to give space to the police to carry out their investigation.
“They’ve made it clear that they will keep in touch with the community, and they’ll come when there are facts to present.
“Speculation doesn’t get us anywhere.”
Cullen said it was time to “wrap ourselves around this very close knit community and give them all the care and attention that they need and deserve”.
Cullen became an MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone at last year’s UK General Election and prior to this, she was the General-Secretary of the UK’s Royal College of Nursing.
Reflecting on this previous role, Cullen said her thoughts were also with the doctors, paramedics, and ambulance workers who arrived on the scene this morning.
She also praised the PSNI for their work.
“They are such experts at what they do,” said Cullen, “and they would have immediately put their skills to work and dealt with what was an unimaginable situation.
“But they’re human beings as well, and when you leave a situation like that, you’re left with your own thoughts and feelings.”
However, Cullen remarked that “when you work in any emergency service, you have to dust yourself down fairly quickly and move on to the next incident, and they will do that”.
She added: “But it’s when you get time alone and go back to your own families, and maybe they’ve got children themselves, and the feelings and thoughts never leave them.
“So my thoughts and massive thanks are with them today as well.”
The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said they received a 999 call at 8.21am and dispatched three emergency ambulances, one rapid response paramedic, two ambulance officers and an ambulance doctor to the scene.
Superintendent McGowan today told reporters that it was a “very harrowing scene for anybody to attend”.
“Detectives have now commenced a murder investigation and are working at pace to determine the circumstances,” said Superintendent McGowan.
“This is a quiet rural location and I’m aware that this tragic event will have sent shockwaves of sadness throughout the community.”
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