As the tragedy and horror of what happened inside a modest family home in Monageer has unfolded, one question above all others is asked by just about every single person in this State: Why? But to that simple question, sadly, there may be no simple answer.
Daily life is built around a set of assumptions which are so banal that we rarely ever give them a first, let alone a second, thought. We will get up in the morning and do today much as we do on other days and then we will return home, chat to the loved ones with whom we share our life and go to bed. Tomorrow, we will do the same again. But life is, of course, far more than this - were it not, many of us would expire from the sheer boredom of it all. What makes life interesting are the surprises, the unexpected incidents. Sometimes, however, the unexpected is so far beyond the horizon of revulsion that it is almost impossible to process the data and reach that point of knowing, of understanding, of answering the question "Why?"
The temptation in such circumstances is to succumb to the shrill clamour to blame; to seek someone, or some institution, and to conclude they were at fault. Equally tempting - and equally to be resisted - is the instinct to judge and condemn. At one superficial level, we seem to know so much about the awful events of last Friday and Saturday. In reality, however, our knowledge is deeply limited. We do not know what propelled Adrian Dunne to visit an undertaker to inquire about funeral arrangements for himself, his wife Ciara and their two toddler children, Leanne and Shania. Neither do we know the state of Mrs Dunne's mind while accompanying her husband. Could she have been a willing participant in what was to occur?
We do know that the actions of many people were correct and commendable: the undertaker staff who on Friday alerted the gardaí; the gardaí who then contacted a priest, who visited the Dunnes for two hours on Friday evening. A priestly colleague called to the house on Saturday morning but the blinds were drawn. That afternoon, gardaí drove past the house, also saw the blinds were drawn and contacted the local social services. When applying hindsight, it must be remembered that the Dunnes were not a family known to gardaí or to social services; there was no known history of violence in the family; and Shania and Leanne were not deemed to be children at risk. At this stage on Saturday evening Mr Dunne was still alive, a fact we know because he had an apparently normal conversation with his brother.
Those closest to events in Monageer are likely torturing themselves now, wondering what more they could have done. What happened was not their fault. The investigations announced yesterday will answer some questions about this tragedy. But what we, as a society, must address is whether State services could have exercised a greater responsibility in this case? We are all challenged to give a precise answer.