Breakfasts, school lunches, sports kits and homework all piling out the door, usually accompanied by frantic searches for missing shoes, gumshields or football boots.
asserted
Breakfasts → pile → shoes
Even rousing everyone from their beds can feel like a Herculean task - the ordinary, sometimes tedious business of family life.
asserted
rousing → rouse → life
The stuff we barely think about, except perhaps to wish it was a little less stressful.
asserted
it → think → ?
Four of them would be murdered in the most heinous way before dawn broke on Tuesday.
asserted
dawn → murder → Tuesday
And I cannot stop thinking about those children and parents, and how they were robbed of their lives.
asserted
they → stop → lives
Jayden, a beaming, bespectacled little nine-year-old in fourth class, had already endured more than most children his age, having undergone heart surgery just two weeks previously.
asserted
Jayden → beam → surgery
Still steeped in childhood, perhaps he was looking forward to another day recovering at home, playing Minecraft.
asserted
he → steep → Minecraft
Described by the principal of Scoil Lorcáin Caroline Douris as a ’ beautiful child’, he was a talented player with Johnville FC.
asserted
he → describe → FC
At the centre of this bustling household were parents, Kim and Philip, whose children were clearly their world.
asserted
children → bustle → household
Philip worked in security, while both parents were familiar faces supporting Callum at football matches.
asserted
parents → work → matches
Even Philip’s former wife, Anne, spoke movingly of their close blended family, describing Kim as her ‘best friend’.
asserted
wife → speak → friend
These were ordinary people, living ordinary lives.
asserted
These → live → lives
And perhaps that’s what makes the horror of Tuesday morning so difficult to comprehend.
asserted
horror → ’ → morning
Looking at photographs of their home, I was struck by its familiarity.
asserted
I → look → familiarity
Yet behind Philip’s smiling face was a father terrified for his family’s safety, having reportedly been subjected to a sustained campaign of intimidation.
uncertain
father → smile → intimidation
Gardaí believe the family were deliberately targeted in connection with another man’s drug debt.
asserted
family → believe → debt
Philip himself was not involved in criminality.
asserted
Philip → involve → criminality
His car had been set alight just ten days before the fatal attack.
asserted
car → set → attack
He had contacted Gardai and was desperately worried about what might happen.
uncertain
what → contact → Gardai
And then, the unthinkable did indeed happen.
asserted
unthinkable → happen → ?
Shortly after 5am on Tuesday, while the family slept upstairs, a petrol bomb was thrown at their front door.
asserted
bomb → sleep → door
The flames spread with terrifying speed, racing up the stairs and trapping the family inside their own home.
asserted
flames → spread → home
There are neighbours accounts of screaming, of Philip breaking windows and people shouting to him to bring the children to safety.
asserted
people → be → safety
He tried, and never returned, and I find it almost impossible to write about what happened next.
asserted
what → try → ?
I can only pray that this beautiful family’s suffering was brief, and that they were together in their last moments.
asserted
they → pray → moments
Jayden, Callum and their parents perished in the blaze.
asserted
Jayden → perish → blaze
Two other children remain critically injured following the arson attack, their futures deeply uncertain.
asserted
futures → remain → attack
Even if they survive, the enormity of what they have lost is almost beyond comprehension.
asserted
they → survive → comprehension
Did those responsible consider the children sleeping upstairs?
asserted
children → consider → ?
Did they care?
asserted
they → care → ?
Or have we reached a point where the lives of innocent families are simply collateral damage in somebody else’s criminal enterprise?
And this is not an isolated horror by any means.
asserted
this → reach → means
Last December, four-year-old Tadhg Farrell and his great-aunt Mary Holt, 60, died in an arson attack in Edenderry.
asserted
Farrell → die → Edenderry
Drug intimidation is becoming terrifyingly commonplace, with youths regularly reportedly recruited to carry out attacks.
uncertain
youths → become → attacks
Have these gangs become so emboldened that they believe themselves above the law?
asserted
themselves → become → law
And if Philip had already pleaded for help, could more have been done to protect his family?
uncertain
more → plead → family
Gardai at the Birchwood estate on Tuesday
Today, the once-bustling family home of 7, Birchwood is a blackened shell.
asserted
home → bustle → 7
Flowers and wreaths line the wall and on a compost bin that will never be used again.
asserted
that → line → bin
Halloween decorations still cling to the scorched window, a heartbreaking reminder of the love, laughter and ordinary rituals of family life that once filled this home.
asserted
that → cling → home
And across Ireland, other families are living in fear of the same fate.
asserted
families → live → fate
We cannot wait until another home becomes a shrine before we take that fear seriously.
asserted
we → wait → fear
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
