Man arrested over fatal Inisbofin fire

A man was being held by gardai at Clifden Garda station for questioning last night in relation to the house fire in which three…

A man was being held by gardai at Clifden Garda station for questioning last night in relation to the house fire in which three elderly sisters died on Inisbofin island early last Tuesday morning.

Gardai arrested the man, believed to be from Northern Ireland, on the island at 6 p.m. yesterday. He was transferred by boat to Cleggan on the mainland and detained at Clifden under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.

Under the legislation, he can be held for an initial period of 12 hours.

A senior Garda spokesman confirmed last night that investigations were continuing and that a large Garda presence was being maintained on the island, which has a population of about 200.

READ MORE

The man, who has been working in Connemara for a number of years, was seen in the vicinity of the house early on Tuesday morning.

A local man who met him on the road spoke to him and as a result of this conversation and other information in the possession of the gardai, they issued an alert to islanders to be wary of approaching him.

Investigators are still waiting for results from forensic examination of the house which belonged to Ms Eileen Coyne, who was being visited by her sisters, Ms Margaret Concannon and Ms Bridget McFadden.

The fire was particularly fierce and it appears the two visiting sisters, who were sleeping downstairs, were awoken and were trying to get upstairs to help Ms Coyne when they were overcome by toxic smoke.

The Garda investigation centres on the activities of the man, who arrived on the island by ferry and spent much of the rest of the night drinking in Day's Hotel. He left and was seen heading towards a hostel on the hill above the hotel.

At about 1.50 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the man was encountered walking down the hill back towards the hotel by a local man. There was a brief conversation.

A short time later local people saw smoke coming from Ms Coyne's house but they were unable to gain entry when they tried to save them.

The bodies of the three sisters will be removed from University College Hospital in Galway this evening and will arrive on Inisbofin on the 6.45 p.m. ferry to the church of St Colmanus.

Funeral Mass will take place tomorrow at 1 p.m. and Ms Coyne and Ms Concannon will be buried in the local cemetery. The body of Ms McFadden (76), a widow, will be removed on Monday and taken to England where she lived with her three children.

The women enjoyed a family reunion in the nearby Doonmore Hotel on the night before the tragedy, in which they met an American cousin who had come to the island to trace his family roots.

The local priest, Father Declan Carroll, said that Ms Coyne was delighted to have her sisters home and the visit of the cousin from the United States had turned it into a special night.

None of the three drank or smoked but they loved meeting visitors. All three of them were deeply religious. "Margaret and Bridget had made a trip to the Holy Land before their visit to Inisbofin" while Eileen was a daily Mass-goer.

"You would always notice an extra spring in her step anytime Margaret and Bridget were coming home. They were due to go back to England this Saturday and it had been a particularly good visit this time. Little did anyone think it would end in such a terrible tragedy," Father Carroll said.