Gardaí in Co Galway have ruled out foul play in their initial investigations into the deaths of two Brazilian men in Gort early yesterday.
A postmortem was due to be carried out by State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy at University College Hospital Galway yesterday on the bodies of Erly Rodrigues da Silva (44) and Roberto Pernas Ramos (27) from Anapolis in the central Brazilian state of Goias.
Both men were related and married with families back home, and had been living and working in the south Galway town for less than a year. They shared their rented bungalow on the Ennis Road with six other compatriots.
It is suspected that fumes from a home heater may have been a contributory factor, as the diesel heater was still on when the men were found in their beds at about 8am yesterday. The alarm was raised when a colleague called to their house to collect them for work.
The two men had been engaged in casual construction work in and around the Gort area for the last few months and were part of the town's substantial Brazilian community. Gardaí were called to the scene and carried out a technical examination before the bodies of the two men were taken to hospital.
Fr Seán Lawlor, a Redemptorist priest based in Esker, Limerick, who ministers to the Portuguese-speaking communities in counties Galway, Limerick and Cork, held prayers in the house for the men's distraught relatives and friends. He arrived shortly before 11am on hearing the news.
He has offered to assist relatives in returning the bodies for burial in Brazil and will be holding a Mass for the men in St Colman's church, Gort. "It is very, very sad and shocking for everyone here, and our thoughts are with the families," he said.
It is understood that Mr da Silva had a wife and two children in Brazil, while Mr Ramos had a wife and 12-year-old daughter. Both were related by marriage, and their housemates included two nephews and a sister-in-law.
Isaias Silva from Campo Grande, Brazil, who teaches English full-time in Gort, said that he knew both men.
"I gave Roberto private lessons, and we are like a family here in Gort. We are all very, very upset, as are many of our Irish friends here in the town."
Gort's Brazilian community has grown to an estimated 800 since a meat plant owner, Seán Duffy, began recruiting Brazilian staff over four years ago.
Initially, the offer was taken up by unemployed slaughtermen, but friends and families soon followed and up to 50 Brazilian children attend the local primary and secondary schools.
Brazilians are estimated to constitute up to a quarter of Gort's population - signs in local shops appear in both English and Portuguese, and Gort has been dubbed the most multicultural town of its size in Ireland.