An elderly woman has died after being assaulted in a house in the north Dublin suburb of Clontarf.
The woman in her 80s was discovered at a property at Kincora Court in Dublin 3 on Sunday evening with fatal injuries. Her body remained at the scene on Monday morning.
A man in his 60s was arrested at the scene and is currently being detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 in Clontarf Garda station.
It is understood the man knew the woman, and gardaí are seeking to establish if he was a relative of the victim, according to one Garda source. Gardaí are not believed to be looking for anyone else in connection with the attack.
The scene was preserved and the State Pathologist’s Office was notified.
A Garda spokeswoman said the Garda Technical Bureau was at the scene, as gardaí were working to establish the details of the fatal assault.
Kincora Court is a small road of red brick homes located just off the coast near to the wooden bridge across to Dollymount Strand.
One local resident walking her dog on Monday morning described the area as “very quiet”.
Another neighbour said while she was not friends with the elderly woman who had been killed, she regularly saw the man who had been arrested coming in and out of the home.
On Monday morning a Garda stood outside the house and the front garden was cordoned off. The cul-de-sac was mostly silent apart from a handful of people heading to work.
Bob Cleary was one local resident out walking his dog Minnie on Monday. “I didn’t hear last night myself because I was watching the match, when I heard this morning I went over to my son and he read it all out to me on the phone,” he said. “I was completely shocked,” he said.
Mr Cleary, who has lived in the area for 30 years, said it was a tight knit neighbourhood. He would know many people on the road where the fatal assault occurred from being out walking his dog, or meeting some of the residents for a swim nearby. It was a “beautiful area, very quiet,” he said.
Colm Brophy, an elderly man living on the road, said he had not heard of the killing until Monday morning. Stopping while out walking to the shops he said the area was very peaceful, describing it as “just a little backwater”. Mr Brophy, who has lived on the road for 14 years, said “it can happen anywhere”.
Another woman out jogging, who did not wish to be named, said news of the killing had come as a total shock. “I was trying to tell my kids what had happened,” she said.
