Hawe family murders

On 28 August 2016, in the townland of Barconey (Robinson), about 3½ miles to the south of Ballyjamesduff in the far south of County Cavan in Ireland, Alan Hawe (40) murdered his wife, Clodagh (née Coll; 39), and their three sons, Liam (13), Niall (11), and Ryan (6), before committing suicide.^[1][2][3][4]

Alan and Clodagh Hawe both worked in education. Alan Hawe, who was a native of Windgap in the south-west of County Kilkenny,^[2][5][6] was deputy principal at Castlerahan National School, which is very close to Barconey (Robinson), the townland where the family home was located, while Clodagh Hawe was a teacher at Oristown National School, just south-east of Kells in the north of County Meath.^{[2][3][4][6][7]} Clodagh Hawe (née Coll) was a native of Mountnugent, a village also located in the far south of County Cavan, the village being only a few miles south-west of Ballyjamesduff.^[4]

Prior to the murders, Alan Hawe had been seeing a therapist and in his last session, he spoke of his status as a "pillar of the community" and how he feared losing this position, weeping while saying "if only they knew."^[8]

Following the murders, it was revealed that Alan Hawe's relationship with Clodagh Hawe was a controlling one. Texts Clodagh Hawe received from her sister, Jacqueline, were immediately forwarded to Alan Hawe and the two shared an email account so that he could keep tabs on her.^[9] Clodagh Hawe had at one point told her mother that she had threatened to leave Alan over his issues with pornography.^[10]

Following the crimes, it was discovered that Alan Hawe had been accessing illegal pornography featuring children, visiting dating sites, and cross-dressing in Clodagh Hawe's clothes. Clodagh Hawe's sister Jacqueline Connolly has spoken about her belief that the fear of this being discovered and losing his position in society led Hawe to commit the murders.^[11][12] His suicide note also revealed that he feared something was about to "blow up" when he returned to work at school after the end of the summer.^[10]

Alan Hawe murdered his family before proceeding to hang himself, all inside the family home at 3 Oakdene Downs, located just inside the townland of Barconey (Robinson) in the far south of County Cavan; the house was almost 3½ miles (around 5.5 kilometres) to the south of the small town of Ballyjamesduff on the northern edge of the Irish Midlands.^{[1][2][3][13]} The townland of Barconey (Robinson) is in the Civil Parish of Castlerahan in the south of County Cavan.^[3][4][14] Though reports initially stated that he had stabbed his family members to death,^[15] it was later reported that he had slit the throats of his children and that Clodagh had been found face down on a sofa with "severe head and neck injuries and [with] a large pool of blood under the chair".^[16] He then wrote a "disjointed and rambling" letter in which he apologised for his actions, before taking his own life via hanging.^[17][18] In the note, Hawe also wrote that he enjoyed killing his family.^[19]

The alarm was raised by Mary Coll, Clodagh's mother, who arrived at the Hawe family home early on the morning of the 29 August 2016.^[20] Mrs Coll had driven to the house at Oakdene Downs. On arriving at the Hawe family home, she found no signs of life: the house was still locked, curtains were still closed and the family's cars were still parked in the driveway.^[20] Mrs Coll went around to the back of the house, intending to let herself in as she had a key to the backdoor.^[20] It was at this stage that Mrs Coll found a handwritten note attached to the backdoor, which read: 'Please do not come in. Please call the gardaí'.^[16][20] Upon reading this note, which was written in Alan Hawe's handwriting, Mrs Coll refrained from entering the house.^[16][20] Instead, she immediately contacted the Garda Síochána on her mobile phone, at around 10:40am.^[20] Garda Alan Ratcliffe and Garda Aisling Walsh were the first gardaí to arrive on the scene, arriving from Bailieborough Garda Station in the south-east of County Cavan shortly after 11am.^[16][20] Garda Ratcliffe entered the house at around 11:30am, where he discovered the bodies of the Hawe family inside.^[20]

An inquest carried out in 2017 ruled that Alan Hawe died by suicide and that Clodagh, Liam, Niall, and Ryan Hawe were unlawfully killed.^[21] The inquest heard that Alan Hawe had been seeing a psychotherapist and that he was concerned about losing his reputation as a pillar of the community.^[8]

Shortly after the murders took place, women's rights groups in Ireland (such as Women's Aid and the National Women's Council) criticised what they perceived as the overly sympathetic treatment of Alan Hawe in the Irish press.^[1][15]

Clodagh's sister and mother were reportedly left €50,000 in debt as a result of the legal costs of pursuing the release of documents pertinent to the investigation of the case.^[22] They were also critical of a lack of support provided by the State and by charitable organisations to their family and the families of murder victims in Ireland generally.^[23]

The case was reviewed in 2019 following the efforts of Clodagh's family, following reports that Alan Hawe had been seen visiting the school at which he had been employed on the morning of the killings.^[24]

Also in 2019, the school in which Clodagh had been employed unveiled a new hall named in her memory.^[25]

In 2025, Jacqueline Connolly, the sister of Clodagh Hawe published a memoir Deadly Silence about the murders. In the book, Connolly highlights a number of failures by Gardaí investigating the case, including CCTV evidence that was mishandled, digital evidence that was overlooked, and 20 key witnesses who needed to be reinterviewed.^[26] Evidence that Alan had a secret phone which he used to access illegal pornography featuring children was also missed.^[11] Connolly has also called for Gardaí to be better trained in investigating murder-suicides.^[27]