Postmortems under way on brothers who died in Sligo incident

Postmortem examinations are being conducted on two brothers, aged nine and 21, who died after an incident near Tubbercurry, Co Sligo on Sunday night.

The brothers have been named locally as Shane (21) and Brandon (9) Skeffington.

The nine-year-old boy was found with stab wounds in a house in Banada, shortly after 7.30pm. He was taken by air ambulance to Sligo Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

The body of his older brother was later found in a shed close by. Gardaí are not seeking anyone else in connection with the deaths.

The postmortems are being carried out at Sligo Regional Hospital by Dr Michael Curtis.

It is understood that the boys’ parents, Shane senior and Carmel, were out of the house for a number of hours yesterday afternoon and found the boys on their return.

The couple have two other children, a teenage girl and a three-year-old boy.

The quiet rural community of Banada near Tubbercurry was trying to make sense of the tragedy. Shocked neighbours expressed their sympathy for the boys’ family. Some local people said they got their first inkling that something was wrong when they heard the sound of a helicopter in the area on Sunday evening.

Local people said that the family had moved from Tubbercurry to the quiet rural area about eight years ago.

Mr Skeffington a blocklayer who worked for several local building companies during the boom, built the two-storey house outside Banada himself.

Local Fianna Fáil councillor Jerry Lundy said people were devastated for the family. “I feel desperately sorry for the family especially their mother and father who are very well known and very well liked,” said Mr Lundy.

He said the boys’ father was involved in the building trade and was very highly regarded. “People were shocked and saddened when they woke up to this news this morning. Our thoughts are with the two children – I think of them both as children – and especially with their families,” added Mr Lundy.

The scene which is just a few miles off the N17, the main Sligo/Galway road, has been cordoned off, pending a Garda technical examination.

Banada is a quiet rural townland best known as the location of Banada Abbey and convent, originally the site of a Norman castle and later a convent industrial school and post primary school run by the Sisters of Mercy.

Nobel laureate John Hume opened a peace garden in the village in 1997.