Woman stabbed to death in Clondalkin named as Cathy Ward

A woman who was stabbed to death in Clondalkin on Friday has been named locally as Cathy Ward.

A man was in Garda custody on Friday following the incident in Dublin on Friday morning.

Neighbours of the dead woman gathered near her home discussing their shock just hours after her body was discovered in the early hours of the morning.

Ms Ward is understood to have three children and was described as quiet but friendly and well liked by those who lived nearby in the west Dublin suburb of Clondalkin.

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Gardaí were called to her home on Greenfort Drive, a row of six council houses overlooking the busy Coldcut Road, at 12.30am.

There they discovered her body with “serious injuries believed to be stab wounds” and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Immediately afterwards, a man in his 50s was taken into custody and is being held at Lucan Garda station.

Neighbours described how the immediate area, a small t-shaped arrangement of houses bordered by a grass verge, saw a lot of Garda and emergency services activity.

“I thought someone was after getting shot,” said one woman standing in her front garden, speaking quietly in front of a little girl to shield her from details of the violent death. “There had to have been 20 police or more.”

The victim, who was aged in her early 40s, is thought to have been at the address for about ten years. She lived, neighbours said, with her partner and had three sons, one of early secondary school age and two older teenagers.

Her personal details have not yet been confirmed and gardaí were still informing relatives of her death on Friday afternoon.

All six houses on the terrace where she lived were enveloped by crime scene tape as a Garda forensic unit pulled into the estate to begin a detailed analysis of the scene. On a sunny afternoon, neighbours and onlookers stopped briefly outside the home to look on. A group of them discussed pitching in for a bunch of flowers to lay outside the house.

“She was such a lovely woman; what would possess you to do that? You just don’t know what goes on behind closed doors,” said one neighbour. Among them, the victim was described as being very nice but little known, at least further down the street.

“I feel really sorry for the kids, having to go through all of that,” said one woman.

Gardaí said the scene had been cordoned off to allow for a full investigation of the scene and the State Pathologist was summoned to examine the body. One neighbour said gardaí had covered an object in the road with a bag, weighted down by a stone.

The victim and her partner were well known for sitting in their front garden, particularly in the summer evenings, exchanging friendly conversation with those who walked by. Their neighbours were clearly shocked by what they consider a puzzling death.

“It goes to show you what happens,” one said, to which her friend replied: “In a split second.”