A 59-year-old mother of four who was fatally injured in a knife attack outside her home in Cork city last year died as a result of a number of stab wounds to the chest, an inquest into her death has heard
Stella Gallagher of Shrewsbury Downs, Ballinlough, Cork died at Cork University Hospital (CUH) late on November 17th, 2025, after being rushed there by ambulance following the violent assault outside her home in the quiet suburb earlier that evening.
Today at Cork City Coroner’s Court sitting at Washington Street, coroner Philip Comyn opened the inquest into the death of Gallagher and heard from Det Gda Sharon Sweeney of Blackrock Garda station that Gallagher was pronounced dead at CUH at 10.46pm on the day of the incident.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster testified that she carried out a postmortem on Gallagher at the morgue at CUH on November 18th after the woman had been formally identified to gardaí by her husband, Brian Gallagher.
READ MORE
Bolster said Stella Gallagher had died from haemorrhage and shock, with blood accumulating in the pleural cavity between the chest walls and the lungs, which were also collapsed, and the injuries were due to stab wounds to the thorax or chest.
Sgt Fergus Twomey said a person was currently before the courts in relation to Gallagher’s death and the Garda investigation was at an advanced stage. Investigators hope to send an extensive file on the matter to the DPP in the very near future.
He said in those circumstances, he was seeking an indefinite adjournment under Section 25 of the Coroners Act 1962 to allow the criminal proceedings take place, but he promised gardaí would keep the coroner informed of any developments in the criminal matter.
The coroner thanked the pathologist for her evidence before granting the sergeant his application and he adjourned the inquest into Gallagher’s death without a date for its resumption to allow the criminal proceedings take their course.
Gallagher’s eldest son, David, was charged on November 19th, 2025 with both the murder of his mother and assault causing harm to his father, Brian Gallagher, at Shrewsbury Downs, Ballinlough on November 17th, 2025. He has been on remand in custody since.
Det Sgt Niall Hayes of Blackrock Garda station told Cork District Court that when he arrested and charged David Gallagher on November 19th with both his mother’s murder and his father’s assault, the young man made no reply to either charge.
A native of Ballinspittle in west Cork, Stella Gallagher, who had worked with US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly in Dunderrow in west Cork, was remembered at her funeral Mass as having “an inbuilt generosity” and was always giving of herself and helping others.
