Gardai investigating a fire at a house in Co Kerry last week believe it may have been started by the man who died in it.
Mr John Herlihy (43) was found dead last Friday following a fire at his bungalow at Kielduff, Annascaul, Co Kerry. Another man found in the bungalow, Mr Pat Hennessy (27), was airlifted to Cork University Hospital on Wednesday. His condition yesterday was described as critical.
Mr Hennessy, a FAS worker, was found lying on a couch in the burnt-out living room of Mr Herlihy's bungalow. Mr Hennessy worked occasionally for Mr Herlihy, helping on the farm.
Gardai believe the fire was started deliberately. Forensic experts removed a can containing "an accelerant".
Mr Herlihy was well known to gardai. He had a criminal record and was the subject of at least two court cases.
Last April he was accused of locking two men in his house, one of them a childhood acquaintance. Annascaul District Court was told he forced the man to drink whiskey, threatening him with a knife and with a hatchet. He was convicted on three counts of assault and bound to the peace for a year.
He had a previous conviction for assault and criminal damage, the court was told, and he was also under medical care.
Yesterday locals described his death and the injury of Mr Pat Hennessy as a tragedy. They told how a number of locals had been "terrorised" by Mr Herlihy since his mother's death over three years ago. One local man said the "system had failed" the late Mr Herlihy. "He should have been in psychiatric care." Meanwhile, in a second blaze near Annascaul early on Thursday, Mrs Mary Sayers (75) died. Mrs Sayers lived at Gort Breagoge, two miles north-east of Annascaul. Gardai are investigating the possibility that clothes drying before an open fire started the blaze. They do not believe the fires are linked.