Latest news with #JacquelineConnolly
Irish Times
31-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Deadly Silence: The compelling and harrowing story on the killing of Clodagh Hawe and her children
Deadly Silence: A Sister's Battle to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of Clodagh and Her Sons by Alan Hawe Author : Jacqueline Connolly (with Kathryn Rogers) ISBN-13 : 978-1399706650 Publisher : Hachette Books Ireland Guideline Price : €16.99 On the night of August 29th, 2016, one of the most devastating cases of murder-suicide occurred in Ireland. Alan Hawe butchered his wife, Clodagh, and their three young sons, Liam, Niall and Ryan, before taking his own life. The ensuing shock waves reverberated through the Cavan townland of Castlerahan, where Hawe had been vice-principal of the local national school, and echoed throughout the entire country. Jacqueline Connolly reveals the circumstances leading up to that dreadful night when she lost her sister and three nephews, and the family's struggle for answers in its aftermath. She unveils a litany of failures with the initial Garda investigation, arguing that they 'closed ranks around uncomfortable truths' and the battle she and her mother went through to secure a review by the Garda serious crime review team. [ 'Alan Hawe was a wolf in sheep's clothing who fooled us all': Clodagh Hawe's sister on her fight for the truth Opens in new window ] Alan Hawe left behind a five-page 'murder letter', written while the mutilated body of his dead wife lay nearby, alleging via a host of 'pseudo-altruistic' claims that he had spared his family from some great shame; he had been caught 'red-handed' and it was all going to 'blow up'. READ MORE Connolly admits to never taking to pillar-of-the-community Hawe, but believed that he and Clodagh were happy together in their 'all-consuming marriage'. Only after their death did she realise the cracks in that perfect veneer, with the revelation that the 'cold, twisted and manipulative' Hawe exercised coercive control over her sister, that he was seeing a counsellor about a pornography addiction, and that Clodagh was considering leaving him. She confesses to not realising 'the depths of his darkness', which ultimately led to a murder 'as premeditated and cold as a professional assassination'. Connolly uses the book to call for a 'better, kinder' inquest process, one that doesn't result in families receiving difficult information in the full glare of the public eye, while the Garda review included strong recommendations on how future investigations into murder-suicides should be conducted. Connolly's life has been marred by such considerable tragedy – she also lost her brother and husband to suicide – that it seems incredible that she has been able to write this harrowing, heart-rending memoir. That it is so utterly compelling, even as she narrates some deeply distressing events, is a testament to her resilience and grace under the most catastrophic circumstances.
Irish Times
15-05-2025
- Irish Times
Jacqueline Connolly: ‘I didn't know what coercive control was until my family were killed'
In 2016, Clodagh Hawe and her three sons, Liam (13), Niall (11) and Ryan (6) were murdered in their Co Cavan home, by their husband and father Alan Hawe, who later took his own life. It was, and still is, Ireland's largest murder-suicide and the brutal killings sent shockwaves throughout the country. In her book, Deadly Silence , Clodagh's younger sister Jacqueline Connolly, gives her account of the circumstances leading up to the mass murder and how her brother-in-law, Hawe, coercively controlled and manipulated her unsuspecting sister. Looking back now, Connolly says she can see some of the red flags surrounding Hawe, but at the time, she wasn't aware of this form of abuse. READ MORE 'I didn't know what coercive control was until they [my family] were killed,' she tells Róisín Ingle on the latest episode of The Irish Times Women's Podcast. Connolly and her family first spoke publicly about their family tragedy in 2019, after feeling let down by the initial Garda investigation. [ 'Alan Hawe was a wolf in sheep's clothing who fooled us all': Clodagh Hawe's sister on her fight for the truth Opens in new window ] The media attention that followed prompted the gardaí to commission a second investigation by the serious crime review team, the findings of which were disclosed to the family in January 2024. It found the initial inquiry mishandled CCTV evidence and missed digital evidence in the case. The family are now calling for the report to be made public, in order to highlight the behaviours of family annihilators and to prevent further tragedies. Connolly believes this action could save lives. 'Clodagh, Liam, Niall and Ryan might still be here… Look at all the murder suicides that have happened up to now and [they all have] the same coroner's investigation. What have we learned? I'm being vulnerable, I'm being open. Take and learn from it.' [ Kathy Sheridan: Who felt informed enough in those first few days to call Alan Hawe a cold-blooded murderer? Opens in new window ] In writing the book, Connolly also hopes to raise greater awareness about domestic abuse and the warning signs to look out for. 'There are people in the shadows, men in GAA clubs in communities, caring, kind, trusting, but what are they like behind closed doors?' 'When you saw Alan, you saw Clodagh, you saw the three boys, they went everywhere together. They were this family unit. They were in my eyes, the perfect family. There was nothing untoward going on,' she recalls. 'I didn't see anything to challenge. Now we're educated on what coercive control is. We're educated on what family annihilators look like. I might not have liked him, but I trusted him'. [ 'I knew him for 20 years ... I knew him but I didn't know him' Opens in new window ] The book, she says 'is to protect women and children and to safeguard them and to show people it could be anybody standing around you. One in three women are coercively controlled.' You can listen back to this conversation in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
Irish Times
12-05-2025
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on the Clodagh Hawe case: real questions for State and society
Many readers will have been moved by the testimony of Jacqueline Connolly, whose memoir, Deadly Silence, has been published this week. The book details the experience of losing her brother and husband to suicide, experiences that most people would find difficult to imagine bearing. It is also a clear-eyed account of the circumstances and aftermath of the murder of her sister Clodagh and three nephews, Liam, Niall and Ryan Clodagh Hawe and her three sons were murdered in 2016 in Castlerahan, Co Cavan by Alan Hawe, Clodagh's husband and the boys' father, who subsequently took his own life. The story as recounted in the book raises troubling questions about coercive control, victims' rights and social attitudes to familial murder-suicide. A Serious Crime Review report into the initial investigation into the murder was finally completed by the Garda in 2023. The 800-page document has not been published but its findings and recommendations are 'incorporated into senior investigative training'. This seems inadequate. In Garda briefings on the report to Clodagh Hawe's family, as described in Deadly Silence, they acknowledge flaws in the investigation's handling of CCTV evidence and the manner in which key witness testimonies were collected. Digital evidence was also missed. READ MORE Just as unsatisfactory is the State's failure to address the long-standing legal loophole surrounding inheritance rights in cases of familial killings. That became a matter of public debate following the killing of Celine Cawley by her husband Eamonn Lillis in Dublin 2008. Legislation proposing changes to the law was published in 2017, but was never progressed. Irish society has also been slow to recognise the ways in which coercive control can be exercised, sometimes invisibly, in a family or relationship. The welcome introduction of legislation in 2019 criminalising such behaviour has hopefully raised awareness. Murder-suicides, with all their attendant trauma, pose a particular challenge for the communities in which they occur as well as for law enforcement. Public reaction may seek to frame the crime in a way that diminishes the responsibility of the perpetrator. That was the experience of Jacqueline Connolly and her mother as they struggled to understand what had really happened to Clodagh and her sons. In their account, there is a lacuna in how the State deals with cases of this sort when there is no living person to prosecute for a crime. None of the questions raised by this appalling tragedy would have come to light had it not been for the perseverance of Jacqueline Connolly. While her commitment and determination are to be admired, her search for the truth should never have been made so difficult.
RTÉ News
10-05-2025
- RTÉ News
JACQUELINE CONNOLLY - 'Clodagh was my sister – we are not what he did'
Jacqueline Connolly speaks to Brendan about her book Deadly Silence which details the aftermath of her sister Clodagh's murder by her husband Alan Hawe in 2016, she talks about identifying the coercive control her sister suffered within her marriage, trying to see a way through grief, dealing with trauma and finding hope in the darkest times.
BreakingNews.ie
10-05-2025
- BreakingNews.ie
Clodagh Hawe's sister wants gardaí better trained to deal with murder-suicides
The sister of a Cavan teacher who was killed by her husband wants improved training for murder-suicide investigations rolled out across all garda stations. Jacqueline Connolly also said a review of the Clodagh Hawe case should be published to provide a greater awareness of the behaviours of 'family annihilators'. Advertisement Alan Hawe, a vice-principal, killed himself, his 39-year-old wife Clodagh and their sons, Liam, 13, Niall, 11, and Ryan, six, in August 2016 at their home near Ballyjamesduff. Alan and Clodagh Hawe and their three children Liam, 13, Niall, 11, and Ryan, six (Family handout/PA) Ms Connolly, who has written a memoir called Deadly Silence, said the deaths were not investigated thoroughly by gardaí and she wants this approach changed. 'He was dead, what did it matter? The 'why' wasn't accounted for in that investigation, but it mattered to us,' she told RTÉ Radio's Brendan O'Connor Show. She said a second investigation carried out by the serious crime review team, authorised by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris in 2019, highlighted what was missed in the first investigation. Advertisement This included CCTV that had not been examined, digital evidence that was overlooked, and 20 key witnesses who needed to be reinterviewed using different techniques. The hearse carrying the coffin of Clodagh Hawe at her funeral in Castlerahan, Co Cavan (PA) Ms Connolly said she has been told gardaí in training will be advised to gather evidence in murder-suicides as though it is a case that will be prosecuted, but she said she wants that rolled out to all rural garda stations because officers were not prepared to 'find Clodagh and the boys like that'. She called on Mr Harris to release the findings of the serious crime review, for which Ms Connolly has seen a summary, because she said it was important that the recommendations are seen by domestic violence institutions. 'I really feel that it would warn people and show people the signs, behaviours, patterns of what family annihilators look like.' Advertisement Ms Connolly said the review heard from an expert that analysed a letter left by Hawe differently to those involved in the initial investigation, and that the teacher's pornography 'addiction' was also revealed. Clodagh Hawe's mother Mary Coll (left) and her sister Jacqueline Connolly leaving the Department of Justice in Dublin (PA) 'His murder letter was used to diagnose depression in an inquest, whereas in the serious crime review this showed – through (Scottish forensic criminologist) Professor David Wilson – actually there was pseudo-altruistic comments in that letter. 'He came across as caring, he wanted the perception of what he was when he was dead to be he was still a good man – that had nothing to do with depression. 'He could show that the behaviours and patterns leading up to their deaths, the research that was done digitally – that wasn't shown in the first investigation – where Alan Hawe was researching up to a year before he killed them.' Advertisement She said Hawe had put a 'distance' between her and her sister, and she would 'never be able to have a conversation in the kitchen with Clodagh on my own'. Ms Connolly said all texts she sent to her older sister were forwarded on to Hawe. Recalling a tribute she wrote on her brother-in-law's Facebook profile in the immediate aftermath of the deaths, Ms Connolly said she was operating on 'autopilot' in her grief and her initial reaction was one of 'pure shock and trauma'. She said there was 'chaos' following the deaths and that no one 'said stop' to burying Hawe alongside the wife and children he had killed. Advertisement 'The day after the funeral, myself and mam went to the grave, and I will never forget how mam looked that day. 'We stood there in silence, and I thought 'what have we done?' And as I thought it, she turned around and said 'what have we done? We've buried him with them'.' She added: 'You can't align the two events, this man who you trusted for so long did such a terrible thing. 'You know something must have happened, but never in a million years would you think – especially considering the findings of the serious crime review – that so much planning went into what he did that night.'
