Older brother charged with killing his 8-yr-old twin siblings and sister as community grieves
TALLAGHT, DUBLIN: A man from Dublin, Ireland, has been charged for an alleged triple murder case as the victims were remembered by their neighbors and locals on Monday, September 5. Andy Cash, 24, reportedly killed his twin siblings — Chelsea and Christy Cawley, aged eight, and his 18-year-old sister Lisa on September 5 at their Tallaght’s Rossfield Avenue home.
The suspect apparently said “no comment” before Judge Patricia McNamara when charged with the deaths of his three siblings at the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin. His defense solicitor plead the court to provide Andy with solitary confinement but it was rejected by the judge, who also denied his bail. The accused is expected to be presented virtually before Cloverhill district court at 10 am next Friday, September 9.
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Earlier, it was reported that Lisa died while protecting her younger siblings. At the time of the horrific incident, the victims’ 14-year-old brother was at home but he survived after jumping out of a window. As per reports, the young woman was babysitting when Cash attacked.
Meanwhile, people who live nearby and those who knew the victims have expressed their grief and shock over the incident. Taoiseach Micheál Martin called the triple murder “terrible tragedy” that had “left the nation shocked and very saddened." Garda Commissioner Drew Harris noted that the killings were “dreadful and traumatic”.
“What we’re all reading in the newspapers and hearing on television and on radio programmes is just beyond a horrifically tragic and devastating scenario. Three young beautiful lives to be extinguished overnight... We think particularly of that community, but I think it’s something that has shocked the entire country,” Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris as reported by The Daily Mail.
Harris also added, “Our hearts and thoughts and our prayers go to the family, to their poor mum and the 14-year-old boy, to all their neighbours, all their friends, to the schoolchildren going back to school today, where there’ll be two empty desks where beautiful twins only returned to school in recent days. I think the whole nation holds all of them in our thoughts.”
To pay tribute to Lisa along with Chelsea and Christy, balloons were released. People and school children also left flowers, soft toys, and candles in their memory at a vigil held outside the Cash home.
Flowers at the scene where Lisa Cash, 18, and her eight-year-old twin brother and sister, Christy and Chelsea Cawley, died after they were attacked and stabbed at their home in Rossfield Avenue in the early hours of yesterday morning, more @rtenews pic.twitter.com/Ws5CGrEewD
— Paul Deighan (@PaulDeighano) September 5, 2022
An unnamed neighbor of the late siblings recalled the fateful day as they said, “I went outside and could see gardaí with their weapons out. We couldn’t make sense of what was happening. It was very traumatic to see it all happen. They were a lovely, beautiful family. Our granddaughter sometimes played with the kids out on the street.”
They asserted, “None of us slept that night. People will not get over this. The community is rocked badly, mentally and physically. The guards did really well that night. They should be given medals. And the paramedics fought and fought so hard to save them. Lisa was a beautiful young girl and she tried her best to save those kids.”
Another anonymous neighbor added, “Their brother who was in the house went to get help. He is their hero. There are no words to describe what we saw and what happened. The whole community will need counseling now.”
Besides, St Aidan’s school’s principal, Kevin Shortall, remembered Lisa, said, "She was one of the most honest, genuine young people, full of integrity and no fuss, no drama around her. I believe she was babysitting at the time, and that would have been something that she was just so good at. She was the kind of person you could trust. That’s the person Lisa was. We are all just meeting each other and shaking our heads and giving each other hugs and things like that. It’s a very difficult morning.”
Fianna Fáil councillor Teresa Costello stated, “It doesn’t feel like real life. We’ve lost three young, vibrant, beautiful lives out of our community, in the most unimaginable terms, and it’s going to be a really difficult road ahead. People are numb. I think it’s not sinking in, but it’s there and it’s so raw for people and it’s something you never imagine is going to be on your doorstep.”
“The scale of what’s emerging in terms of the detail, you never imagine that’s something to happen, particularly to children, and the wider community here are well aware of what happened because they saw it. They saw it from their own houses, from their gardens, from the road. It’s important to remember the names Lisa, Chelsea and Christy. They’re the three most important people right now,” Costello concluded.