CUALA GROVE is a quiet cul-de- sac within five minutes’ walk of the sea. An estate agent brochure describes it as “an enviable location being so close to the foothills of Bray Head and the Irish Sea”.
A house in need of refurbishment on the road is on offer for €500,000.
The peace of Cuala Grove was shattered over the weekend, when a neighbour alerted gardaí to an altercation that led to the deaths of two 22-year-old men and the wounding of a man and a woman.
The house remained cordoned off last night and gardaí have set up an incident room at Bray Garda station.
Locals, some of them elderly, expressed “utter disbelief” at the violent deaths.
One man said he could not believe how such a thing could involve the family, whom he said lived quietly in the area “like everybody else around here”.
Parish priest Fr Laurence White said there were “no words which can take way the pain and bewilderment that these families must feel”.
Local politicians expressed shock at the killings. Former chairman of Wicklow County Council Pat Vance said he only knew “the area to be very quiet, very settled, not at all the kind of place where you would expect this kind of thing to happen”.
Local TD Dick Roche said there was only about 14 houses in Cuala Grove and the residents were typically mature families.
Mr Roche expressed his sympathy to those bereaved. “The whole community down there is absolutely shocked,” he said.
Local councillor Ronan McManus said the family was not well known in the area.
“I grew up in Bray. I would have done similar things myself in having parties when my parents were away, but this is a terrible thing to have happened, absolutely awful,” Mr McManus said.