On Sunday evening, two little boys left their home in Carlow to go bowling with their dad.
Two outgoing little boys from what seemed a normal, loving family; it was a perfectly ordinary scene, no doubt mirrored in numerous households across Ireland. What set these boys apart was that they did not come back.
The horror and tragedy that befell Eoghan and Ruairi Chada is, quite simply, unimaginable. At the time of writing, gardaà are investigating the possibility that they may have been killed by their father.
For most parents, the thought of deliberately harming their children is an alien concept that goes against human nature and our deepest, most primal instincts.
Many parents will say that they would willingly kill, or die themselves, in order to protect their children.
So why are horror stories of murder-suicides carried out by parents becoming far too common in Ireland?
Since 2000, there have been at least seven cases where a parent, in the majority of cases the father, has taken his own life and those of his children, and sometimes his partner’s also.
We will never know just what goes on in the mind of someone who is driven to cross that unthinkable line but, according to a 2013 study, there are two ‘typical’ murder-suicide scenarios.
The first is where the perpetrator, usually a male, suspects his partner of infidelity or desertion.
The second is where the male or female perpetrator suffers from depression and, anticipating personal or economic catastrophe, takes their family’s lives in a misguided attempt at protecting them.
It is easy for most people in their right mind to dismiss these perpetrators as evil, crazed monsters, but oversimplifying such a complex psychological state is dangerous.
The perpetrators of these crimes are generally seriously unwell and. in an extremely fragile state of mind, often pushed to the brink by personal or economic circumstances.
Ireland has a long way to go in terms of its attitudes towards mental illness; society needs to become more accepting of those who need help and support in the hope of saving other innocent lives.
