Like most busy towns in Ireland, Naas has its fair share of public disorder late at night. Once the pubs close, the taxi ranks fill with people keen to find their way home, and it is not uncommon for trouble to flare up, writes James Fitzgerald in Naas, Co Kildare
But random acts of violence are rare in Naas. Rarer still are savage knife attacks like the one that took the life of a quiet and devoted mother of three as she waited for a cab to bring herself and her husband home on Wednesday night.
"I can't believe something like that would happen on the main street in Naas," said a woman in her 50s, looking sadly upon the scene yesterday afternoon. "When I heard the news first, I assumed it was a domestic argument that went wrong. But then they said it was at the taxi rank in the middle of town and I was shocked, really shocked," she said.
A number of small bunches of flowers, laid by friends and neighbours, marked the place on the street where Frances Ralph was murdered.
Passers-by stopped to read the cards, shake their heads and wonder how such a thing could happen.
"It's terribly sad, really awful," said a taxi driver in the town who did not want to be named.
"You would not think it would happen here. I think she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.
Margaret Murphy was shopping yesterday with her daughter and paused at the place where Ms Ralph died.
"It's really frightening that this is going on in a nice town like Naas," said Ms Murphy.
It is the second vicious and fatal attack in Co Kildare in less than one week. A 51-year-old widower and father of two sons died last Saturday morning after he had been beaten and kicked in an unprovoked attack by a gang of teenagers and young men in the garden of his home in Leixlip.
"It's really scary. I don't think I'd feel safe going out into town late at night anymore, especially with that other death in Leixlip a few days ago," she said.
Ms Ralph lived in Sallins Bridge, a pleasant, quiet estate in the village of Sallins, and served on the parents' council of the local national school, where her youngest son had just finished. She worked in the AIB Direct Banking centre on the Blessington Road, Naas, where colleagues said she was a very quiet, unassuming sort of person who got on well with everybody and was devoted to her family.
"The tragic loss of our colleague Frances Ralph . . . has shocked and saddened us all," AIB said in a statement.
"Our thoughts today are with her family, her friends, her colleagues in AIB Direct Banking and across the AIB network," it continued.
At her home, friends and family gathered during the day to mourn, and comfort her husband and sons.
"It's very raw at the moment and the family need time and space to grieve," said a close family friend. "I'm broken-hearted. Everybody is. It's a very difficult time for the family, as you can imagine."