Gardaí investigating if domestic dispute led to Rathmines death

Gardaí are investigating whether a man found dead in a house in the south Dublin suburb of Rathmines may have been killed during a domestic dispute.

Des Sullivan (59) was discovered by detectives in a house in Summerville Park on Monday night.

It is understood one line of inquiry being pursued by gardaí is that Mr Sullivan was killed during a domestic dispute.

A postmortem has been carried out on the body but a spokesman for the Garda said its results were not being released for operational reasons.

A 67-year-old man was arrested in connection with the discovery on Tuesday and is currently being detained at Rathmines Garda station.

Summerville Park is a small lane just around the corner from Rathmines Garda Station, which is located off the main street. There are about five terraced houses on either side of the road.

Locals declined to speak to reporters on Wednesday in relation to Mr Sullivan’s death or the murder investigation. A single bunch of flowers was placed outside the property where his body was discovered.

Details of the man’s death and the subsequent murder investigation only emerged on Tuesday night when gardaí issued a press statement.

The alarm was raised at about 11.30pm on Monday when gardaí received a call informing them an incident had occurred at a house in Summerville Park.

Detectives and members of Dublin Fire Brigade rushed to the scene where they discovered the man who was unresponsive. He was later pronounced dead at the scene.

The body remained at the property and was preserved overnight. The State pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy attended the scene on Tuesday and later carried out a post mortem on the body at the City Morgue in Marino.

The arrested man is being detained under the provisions of section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 as amended.