Book description
In
Flesh and Blood
, Sunday World
Investigations Editor, Nicola Tallant looks at the rising phenomenon of
murder-suicide in Ireland, at events which, while shocking in the
extreme, happen in tight-knit communities, behind the closed doors of
apparently loving homes. She takes us inside these houses of horror and
pieces together what happened in seventeen prominent cases, including
the horrific murder of four-year-old Deirdre Crowley, whose abductor
father shot her dead so that her mother would never see her again; the
case of Caitlin Innes, murdered after her Communion Day; the tragic
McElhill children, torched to death by their own father; and the case of
mother Sharon Grace who, in a state of extreme desperation, drove off a
pier with her children in the car. It examines what warning signs, if
any, were there before loving fathers and mothers turned killer in their
own homes, and looks at the roles of the HSE, the Gardai and families
and friends in the build up to these tragic events. Is it too easy to
whitewash these crimes as those of the mentally ill? Or can jealousy tip
the scales in an otherwise balanced mind? Are there common factors that
link these cases? And what steps can be taken to ensure that warning
signs are heeded in the future before tragedy strikes again?
