Gardaí investigating the suspicious death of a man in a fire at a mobile home in Co Kilkenny in the early hours of yesterday morning arrested a 21-year-old "local man" under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.
The man was being detained at Kilkenny Garda station where he could be held for questioning for up to 12 hours before being either charged or released.
The emergency services were called to Deerpark outside Castlecomer, 18 kilometres north of Kilkenny city at about 4.30am yesterday where a mobile home situated behind a house was ablaze.
The body of Gerry Nolan (44), was found by units of Kilkenny Fire Service and gardaí inside the burnt-out mobile home.
The scene was preserved and State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy and members of the Garda Technical Bureau arrived at Deerpark at around 3pm.
The body was later removed and taken to Waterford Regional Hospital for a postmortem examination.
Deerpark is a hamlet about two kilometres outside Castlecomer and its mostly cottage-style houses were formerly the homes of local coal miners.
According to a family spokesman, the deceased man's father and grandfather both worked in the coalmines.
He said that three brothers lived at the property: Michael in the house; while the deceased man and another brother, Willie-Joe, both lived in separate mobile homes behind the house. All were believed to live alone.
A fourth brother, Christy, who lives some miles away, said that Gerry had been in Castlecomer on Sunday night and returned home by taxi.
He understood that Willie-Joe was awoken by noise in the early hours of yesterday morning and saw the flames in the adjacent mobile home.
He tried as best he could to break down the door but was driven back by the force of the fire and heard his brother shout "I can't get out".
Christy Nolan said that his brother, Gerry, was "a quiet man who had never done wrong to anyone".
He had lived in England, where he has a 22-year-old son.
He returned some time ago to Castlecomer and had applied to the county council for a house.
Local Labour Cllr Maurice Shortall confirmed that the deceased man had been "on a waiting list" to be properly housed by Kilkenny County Council.
Cllr Shortall, who visited the scene, described the incident as "appalling and unfortunate" and said that the family of 11 siblings was "well-known and respected in the area".
He said that the Nolans had suffered a "double tragedy" as they had "buried their mother earlier this year".
