Gardaí investigating an arson attack that killed four-year-old Tadhg Farrell and his grandaunt, Mary Holt, at their family’s Co Offaly home last December believe they have identified the main figures behind the feud-related incident.
The boy and the 60-year-old woman died after a hastily arranged plan to petrol bomb their house followed a prison fight earlier the same day.
Gardaí have arrested five people in connection with the arson attack, including a juvenile and four men, two in their 20s and two in their 30s. All five were detained under section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, which is used for the investigation of gang crime.
The suspects were arrested in planned operations and searches, four on Tuesday and one on Wednesday night. They can be held for questioning for up to seven days without charge.
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Another man in his 20s was arrested in mid-January for questioning about the fire, though he was released without charge. He was in prison at the time and was taken from jail to be questioned before being returned after interview.
This week’s arrests represent the most significant moves by An Garda Síochána in Tullamore since the investigation began into the December 6th arson attack.
Detectives believe that attack was designed as revenge on one of the men involved in the prison fight, Aaron Holt, and was carried out by his rival’s associates. The victims of the fire were Holt’s son and aunt. Holt’s mother escaped from the house at Castleview Park, Edenderry, though she suffered serious burns.
[ Gardaí release CCTV footage of fatal firebomb attack on Edenderry house ]
It appears that Tadhg and his grandaunt were trapped in a downstairs room as a result of the fire. The house had been attacked in the past. In May 2024, a pipe bomb was discovered in the back garden, leading to houses on road being evacuated.
The bomb was made safe and removed from the scene by the Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit. On other occasions, windows of the house were broken. Gardaí suspected the same criminals were behind these attacks and the previous localised feud incidents.
Both sides in the dispute are known to gardaí, especially in Offaly and Kildare, for their involvement in the midlands drug scene. Some of those arrested this week, and who were still being held on Thursday night, are known to each other from the Kildare area.
Since the fire, Aaron Holt has been jailed for seven years over a seizure of heroin valued at more than €32,000 in Edenderry in 2024.
Last December, shortly after the arson attack, four men were arrested in jail for questioning about the fight in prison in the hours before the fire. However, the investigation into the arson attack and the deaths of Tadhg and his grandaunt is separate to the inquiry into the prison fight.
Just over a month ago, another member of the Holt family – Christopher ‘Crunchie’ Holt – was killed in an accidental fire at the same house left severely damaged in the December arson attack. He was the brother of the late Mary Holt.
Though the property had been boarded up after December’s attack, Christopher Holt had gained access. He was living there, without power or water, when fire broke out on March 24th, resulting in his death.
