{"id":275698,"date":"2026-01-09T09:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T09:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/275698\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T09:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T09:39:07","slug":"father-killed-son-before-travelling-to-ex-partners-house-for-suicide-gardai-believe-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/275698\/","title":{"rendered":"Father killed son before travelling to ex-partner\u2019s house for suicide, garda\u00ed believe \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Dublin man killed his son in his own home before travelling to his ex-partner\u2019s house and taking his life in the back garden of the property, garda\u00ed believe. <\/p>\n

His remains were discovered in the garden on Thursday morning, and garda\u00ed<\/a> were alerted. <\/p>\n

When garda\u00ed went to the dead man\u2019s house in Clondalkin<\/a>, west Dublin, they forced their way inside and found the boy\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

The father and son were named last night as Wayne and Ois\u00edn O\u2019Reilly. They were reported missing last October, resulting in a Garda search that ended when they turned up safe and well.<\/p>\n

The Irish Times understands that, although 48-year-old Mr O\u2019Reilly\u2019s disappearance with his 12-year-old son raised concerns about his frame of mind, he appeared well in the period that followed. Mr O\u2019Reilly continued to have access to his son in a shared custody arrangement with his ex-partner, the boy\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n

The property at which Mr O\u2019Reilly took his own life is in Ballyfermot, Dublin 10. His ex-partner lived there with Ois\u00edn and her children from another relationship. It was sealed off as a potential crime scene on Thursday, as was the house where Ois\u00edn\u2019s remains were found, at Lealand Road, Clondalkin, Dublin 22.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed were on Thursday night awaiting the results of postmortems on the remains of the father and son that will dictate the direction of the investigation. However, they suspect the case is one of murder and suicide and are not looking for anyone else over the deaths. Detectives believe Ois\u00edn died violently. <\/p>\n

At Mr O\u2019Reilly\u2019s ex-partner\u2019s house where his remains were found, children\u2019s toys were visible at the side entrance and Christmas murals were painted on the windows at the front of the property.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe house in Ballyfermot where Wayne O’Reilly’s remains were discovered. Photograph: Sam Boal\/Collins \"GardaíGarda\u00ed at the house in Clondalkin where the body of 11-year-old Ois\u00edn O’Reilly was found. Photograph: Colin Keegan\/Collins <\/p>\n

A friend of Mr O\u2019Reilly\u2019s visited the scene on Thursday, saying everybody in the area was \u201cshocked\u201d when news of the deaths emerged. <\/p>\n

He said Mr O\u2019Reilly was well known in the area and sometimes earned a living fixing cars. He said the deceased man had suffered mental health issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known him for more than 20 years; we\u2019re all shocked, devastated,\u201d he said. The man added it was hard to reconcile his memories of Mr O\u2019Reilly with the killing of Ois\u00edn.<\/p>\n

Cllr Daith\u00ed Doolan<\/a>, a Sinn F\u00e9in representative for the Ballyfermot-Drimnagh area, described as \u201cheartbreaking\u201d the deaths in Clondalkin and Ballyfermot. \u201cThis is so very sad. Deepest sympathy to the family and friends. You are in our thoughts at this tragic time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The houses in Ballyfermot and Clondalkin where the remains were found were being examined by the Garda Technical Bureau throughout Thursday. Some local people formed a guard of honour as Ois\u00edn\u2019s remains were removed from his father\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

Garda Headquarters confirmed members of the force were alerted to the discovery of the man\u2019s remains in Ballyfermot at about 8.30am yesterday, resulting in the decision to go to the second property, where the boy was found dead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coroner has been notified and the services of the Office of the State Pathologist have been requested,\u201d the Garda said. <\/p>\n

\u201cPostmortem examinations will be arranged in due course. The results of these examinations will assist garda\u00ed in determining the course of the investigation. The investigation is being carried out under a senior investigating officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tusla said that while the boy was not in the care of the State, the family was known to the agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe death of a child is a tragedy, and our thoughts are with the family, all those who knew him, and the local community at this difficult time,\u201d the child and family agency said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to engage with An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na as they conduct their investigation, and it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Dublin man killed his son in his own home before travelling to his ex-partner\u2019s house and taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,9,10,16470,139653,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-275698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-clondalkin","12":"tag-daithi-doolan","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115864480320658442","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}