Locals in shock after body of boy (6) discovered in car in Co Waterford: ‘The news is hitting hard’

Gardaí are treating the death of a six year old child in Waterford as suspicious.

Gardaí and paramedics were called to a rural property outside Dunmore East in Waterford late on Thursday evening amid concerns for the welfare of the occupants of a house.

A six year old boy was discovered unresponsive in a car parked not far from the property.

A woman, who is known to the child, was discovered at the scene.

The woman, in her late thirties, was arrested at the scene and was brought to a Waterford Garda Station for questioning.

She is being detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

She was given emergency medical treatment at the scene and will also receive treatment while in Garda custody.

Desperate efforts were made at the scene by paramedics to assist the unresponsive child.

The youngster was rushed to University Hospital Waterford (UHW) where, despite efforts by doctors to stabilise the child’s condition, the boy was pronounced dead shortly after 2am today.

Gardaí have sealed off the scene to allow for a full forensic and technical examination.

The initial property is located at Rathmoylan outside Dunmore East and just over 20km from Waterford city.

The Office of the State Pathologist has been notified.

A full post mortem examination is scheduled to be conducted on the little boy at UHW.

Garda sources said the nature of their investigation will be determined by the findings of the post mortem examination.

However, the boy’s death is being treated as suspicious given the circumstances involved.

The woman arrested is understood to have been in a very distressed condition when detained by officers.

Gardaí are expected to commence local inquiries about when the child and woman were last seen and if neighbours heard or say anything suspicious over recent days.

Dunmore East-based Sinn Féin Cllr Pat Fitzgerald said he knows the area well.

“It’s a country rural community, just living out on the coast there,” he said.

“It would be sparsely populated. There are little clusters of houses. It’s a very, very, unfortunate thing to happen. God help those people.

“There’s a little cove down there. It’s a beautiful little place. It’s idyllic. It’s coastal Ireland with little cottages and chalets. It’s real rural Ireland, rural Waterford.”

Councillor Fitzgerald said that although it’s a scenic area, not many tourists would be there at this time of year.

“There would have been people living there that I wouldn’t have known. There were a few families living there, renting properties there.”

Councillor Fitzgerald said there was a “sense of shock” in the locality and “it’s a terrible thing to happen in any community.”

“We don’t know what happened. Our thoughts go out to the family. It’s the last thing I would have expected to hear in that community.

“It’s the worst news I could have heard this morning, or anybody around could have heard. It’s the last thing we expected. This is very, very, unusual to say the least.

“Anybody would be shocked, when they hear something like this,” he added.

Fr Richard O’Halloran is the parish priest of St Mary’s Church, Carbally, which covers Rathmoylan Cove.

News was still breaking when Fr O’Halloran extended his condolences to the family and the community.

“The news is breaking slowly,” he said. “Having spoken to a number of people already this morning, most certainly people are all shocked to hear it.”

This is the second incident in recent times involving the tragic death of a young child that the locality has been dealing with, he said.

Father O’Halloran recently spoke at the Funeral Mass of Kobi Macharia Dooly, whose death in London sent shockwaves through the community in Tramore and beyond. The Dooly family brought Kobi back to Tramore to his paternal home, before his burial in England.

“It’s another death of a young child in obviously distressing circumstances,” said Fr O’Halloran. “The news is hitting hard. People are somewhat shocked.”

Rathmoylan is a country area that is “out of the way”.

“There’s a small little beach there. That’s really it. There’s a little walkway off of the beach around the coastline a little bit as well.”

If a number of cars went down there, they would nearly be in each other’s way, he said.

“Locals know it well, and would use it for swimming and for other activities. If you weren’t from the area, you probably wouldn’t find it,” added Fr O’Halloran.

More to follow

Get ahead of the day with the morning headlines at 7.30am and Fionnán Sheahan’s exclusive take on the day’s news every afternoon, with our free daily newsletter.