Bluebell: Postmortems show brothers died from natural causes

Postmortems on the bodies of two elderly brothers found at a house in Dublin on Tuesday have concluded the men died from natural causes.

Daniel and William McCarthy, who were in their 70s, had been sharing the home in Millrose Estate, Bluebell, west Dublin.

One of the men is believed to have lived at the house with the body of his brother for several weeks, before he himself died last weekend.

A Garda spokesman said the results of the postmortems could not be released for operational reasons but it is understood the tests produced nothing to suggest foul play played a part in the deaths of the two men.

Inquest

Gardaí will now prepare a file for the coroner’s court, with an inquest likely to take place in the coming months.

The alarm was raised on Tuesday when a friend became concerned that they had not seen either man since the end of last week.

Gardaí believe one of the men died “at least a number of weeks ago”. His brother continued to live at the home without moving the body.

It is believed the man who died first effectively ran the household, including preparing meals.

When he died, the other man was unable to look after himself and was apparently unable to alert the authorities that his brother was dead.

The remains of the two men were removed to the city morgue in Marino where the postmortems were carried out.

The chief executive of Alone, the elderly support organisation, described the deaths as an extreme example of what can happen to older vulnerable people.

Sean Moynihan said: “The thing that people need to realise is that isolation and loneliness affects around one in 10 older people.”

Contact Alone on 01-6791032 or by email at enquiries@alone.ie.