Fucking hell. Just seemed so normal in so many ways. A huge percentage of women go through the same feelings she had about being a shit mother to some extent. And another big percentage suffer from anxiety and depression. How did it spiral so bad. The husbands shock when he was asked 6 months before the murders did he think she might be a danger to herself or the children says it all.
I dont know why I botheredâŚI had to stop at the details of the murder part. Did it mention at all that she planned to take her own life or why she didnât,?
She had planned to jump off a road bridge, I think but crashed her car on the way.
Jesus. Thatâs a bit of a rollercoaster. You wouldnât know what to feel after reading it
Yeah, I stopped when she replied to the wedding text. Hard to get your head around it really.
Could you post up the article? Blocked by paywall.
Youâd wonder when she is treated and the drugs start to work and the realisation what she has done dawns on her. That would mean she can never really recover.
He lost his wife that day too.
Horrible thing to contemplate but her husband has demonstrated a grace way beyond anything Iâd think Iâd be capable of.
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Deirdre Morley came to believe her cherished children were âdoomedâ
Nurseâs mental health issues crystallised into something darker due to anxieties over motherhood
Deirdre Morley and Andrew McGinley with their children Conor, Darragh and Carla. A jury has found Ms Morley not guilty of murdering the three children by reason of insanity.
Deirdre Morley and Andrew McGinley with their children Conor, Darragh and Carla. A jury has found Ms Morley not guilty of murdering the three children by reason of insanity.
Jennifer OâConnell
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about 17 hours ago
Deirdre Morley became convinced she was an inadequate mother who had irreparably damaged her children, the Central Criminal Court heard during her trial for the murder of her three children.
On Thursday, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity of the murders of Conor (9), Darragh (7) and Carla (3) McGinley, who the trial heard were âvery, very deeply lovedâ.
Ms Morley had a depressive illness that developed into delusions and psychosis, the court heard.
âI felt so useless,â she told a psychiatrist in Tallaght University Hospital in March of last year. She was admitted after she killed her children on January 24th, 2020 and tried to take her own life.
The court was told repeatedly that the children were cherished, cared for and loved by devoted parents, but Ms Morley came to believe they were âdoomedâ.
âThey were broken like me because I couldnât parent them, I couldnât be resilient,â she told gardaĂ.
The first symptoms of the anxiety that would overshadow Ms Morleyâs adult life emerged when she was still a student. She grew up in Dublin, the youngest of eight siblings. Her father died when she was 20 months old and she was close to her mother, maybe âa bit too closeâ.
She moved to Cork to study nursing in 1996 and was âridiculously homesickâ. Two years later, after her mother was diagnosed with cancer, she first attended a GP with mental health concerns. Her mother died at the age of 85 in 2015, a âsource of enormous stressâ.
Later in her career, when she was studying to add to her nursing qualifications, Ms Morley again became very stressed and had difficulty concentrating.
But after the exams were over, things improved. There was another period when she experienced bullying at work, but again, this passed.
âI had a difficulty asserting my authority, Iâm a bit of a people pleaser,â she said.
It was only after she became a mother that these stresses crystallised into something much darker.
Peaks and troughs
She met her husband Andrew McGinley in 2002, and they âslotted into each otherâs lives easily from the startâ.
Their marriage was a good one that had âpeaks and troughsâ. But looking back later, Ms Morley wondered âhow much of our struggles were my strugglesâ.
âI never stopped loving him. He was a really good guy,â she told forensic psychiatrist Dr Brenda Wright.
Psychiatrist Dr Brenda Wright is pictured outside the Criminal Courts of Justice after giving evidence in the trial of Deirdre Morley. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times.
Psychiatrist Dr Brenda Wright is pictured outside the Criminal Courts of Justice after giving evidence in the trial of Deirdre Morley. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times.
The anxiety began to take hold again from early on in their marriage, though she became adept at hiding her feelings. She suffered from poor self-esteem, tearfulness, and low mood. At work, she had âan increasing fear of something happening on my watchâ. Even when she was off, she would call into to work to check on the children in her care.
When she became pregnant with Conor, she was âreally happyâ and after his birth she was âon cloud nineâ for the first four months. Her marriage was also in a very good place. Mr McGinley was âvery paternal, he loves kidsâ.
But when Conor was four-months-old, the earlier anxieties began spiralling. She catastrophised about what were entirely normal developmental stages. She had âwell beyond normal worriesâ that he was not in a routine, was not taking regular naps and would not take a soother.
âI was hard on myself. He was a good, happy, contented baby,â she said.
That anxiety and perfectionism became features of her parenting.
She agonised about their eating, their toilet training, why they were not yet riding a bike or swimming. She watched the clock constantly to see how much time they were spending on screens.
When Darragh was a boisterous two-year-old and went through a brief phase of hitting she thought she âwas not giving him enough or the right kind of attention.â
Ms Morley was âcompletely distraughtâ when Carla started being a fussy eater. When Darragh was older and suffered from tummy aches after he changed school, she again blamed herself.
âDarragh was a great boy, he was very attached and attuned with me,â she later told doctors.
Family members tried to support and reassure her, but âwhen I was in the thick of it there was no talking to me,â she told Dr Wright. She later said âI can see now itâs all normal development.â
Her feelings of inadequacy as a mother became a recurring theme in her thoughts, but one she mostly concealed from her husband, sisters and friends.
Struggles at work
In March 2018, Ms Morley took 12 weeks off work with stress, and by the end of that year, âI wasnât able to enjoy anything,â she told Dr Wright. She lost 10lbs over six weeks, and could not get through the day without a nap. She tried to go back to work, but was unable.
A GP she saw later that year noted that she was struggling to get out of bed and waking up early. She wanted to get away and felt overwhelmed looking after the children. Her records noted that she âcanât manage children at all.â
In early 2019, now back at work part-time, but still struggling with feeling overwhelmed, Ms Morley described a fantasy âthat I am in apartment in Paris, no children, just meâ. The notion that her mental health issues were impacting on her role as a parent and wife by now had tightened its grip on her.
By the summer, it was noted in her records, âdoesnât want to be around her children⌠doesnât feel she can go back to the house.â
She was admitted to St Patrickâs Hospital on July 6th, 2019. There, she was described as âoverwhelmed, low mood, poor sleep and appetite, excessive guilt, poor self-worth, early morning wakening, poor concentrationâ.
Some of these are symptoms of significant depressive illness, the court heard. Sometime before she was released her husband took a telephone call from the hospital. He was asked if he thought Ms Morley was a danger to herself or the children.
âHe was really shockedâŚhe honestly was stunned that this was even being suggested,â Mr Bowman told the court.
Prosecution counsel Anne-Marie Lawlor said that because Ms Morley was so medically qualified, she took control of her own treatment. The court heard that what she was going through day to day would not have been communicated in detail to her husband. Her final diagnosis ahead of her discharge from St Patrickâs was moderate depressive episodes.
In September 2019, her mood took a sudden upswing, but a GP worried it was âtoo highâ. She was waking up at night to bake and cook and seemed elated, which can be a recognised phenomenon for some people on the wrong type of anti-depressant, the court was told. She was advised to reduce her dosage.
Last six months
The six months before the childrenâs deaths proved the most difficult in her marriage. She and Mr McGinley were talking less and mainly interacted around logistics, she told Dr Wright.
In November 2019, her sister contacted the GP to say Ms Morley had deteriorated significantly. She could not get up to bring the children to school and her sister had been unable to persuade her to the come to the doctor. She felt guilt, shame, worthlessness, but did not want to go back to St Patrickâs as an in-patient, so attended for a brief time as a day patient. At that time, she said, âI just want to evaporate.â
Her family, however, believed she began to improve in December and January, but she was presenting a different side to experts. Her counsellor noted in January that Ms Morley was âas bad as I have seen herâ. She kept returning to the same theme: she was selfish, inadequate and had damaged the children.
Around the same time, her GP recorded Ms Morleyâs view that âthings are really hard at home, the boys are acting out as discipline has started to slide.â
GardaĂ at the scene at Parsons Court, Newcastle, Co Dublin where the bodies of the three McGinley children were found. Photograph: Damien Eagers.
GardaĂ at the scene at Parsons Court, Newcastle, Co Dublin where the bodies of the three McGinley children were found. Photograph: Damien Eagers.
The court heard repeatedly, however, that this was a âskewedâ sense of the behaviour of the children. Defence barrister Michael Bowman noted that, âobjectively all those that viewed them found them wonderfully engaging and delightful young children.â
This was a delusion, a manifestation of the mental illness that was gripping her.
In the final week of her childrenâs life, Ms Morley âstarted to think about a planâ. âI wanted to evaporate for a long time. Iâm not sure when it became more definitive,â she said.
She thought about taking her own life, but thought âI canât leave the children.â
In the week of January 20th, she began to have two recurring thoughts. âI had to go, I couldnât not take them with meâ and âI have ruined them by bad parenting and my mental illness. I felt they were doomed. They were going to be mentally ill and not secure.â
She told no-one about these thoughts.
On the Monday of that week, she saw her sisters, but felt âremovedâŚless and less like myself.â
âI could only see all the positives in everyone elseâs life and all the negatives in my lifeâ and the childrenâs. Asked later if she had given any thought to the impact of killing the children on others, she said, âI was thinking people would be sad, but it was definitive, this had to happenâŚI thought it was the right thing to do, the hard thing, but the right thing.â
All she could think about was what she imagined would be their struggles for the future. Now, she told Dr Wright later in 2020, âall I can think of is what they had going for them so I canât remember what I was worried about.â
Distressing events
Det Sgt Dara Kenny gave evidence from garda interviews on the first full day of evidence which laid out the distressing events of January 23rd and 24th, 2020.
Mr McGinley went away on a work trip on Thursday and was due back on Friday evening. The court heard he had no concern at all in relation to Ms Morley or the children. Throughout the time he was away, they were in frequent contact, and she betrayed no sign anything was wrong.
But on Thursday, she purchased rope from a hardware store with a view to making a noose. She looked up how to make a noose and searched for the N7 flyover and the Poolbeg lighthouse.
That evening, she attempted to sedate all three children and planned to suffocate them in their sleep.
Conor was having a bowl of porridge before bed, and Darragh was having Cheerios. She crushed six to eight morphine tablets to put them in the boysâ bowls, calculating that they would ingest three or four each. But the minute Conor tasted it, he said, âwhatâs that? Thatâs disgustingâ, and spat it out.
She put a tablet containing codeine in Carlaâs purple sippy cup, though she believed Carla had not consumed much of it.
That night, as she fell asleep in the big bed, her two boys beside her, she felt relief that it had not worked. She thought then that she would not go through with it. âI canât do it but I donât know how I am going to go on.â
On the childrenâs final morning, Darragh was off school with a cough and Carla stayed home from creche. She was playing with her dolls and toys, and asking her mother to play with her. Darragh was using his iPad and watching TV. After a while, both children watched Trolls together. Ms Morley pottered around and smoked some cigarettes outside.
At midday on Friday, there was a minor argument over screen time which âreinforced my faulty thinkingâ that she had damaged the children. She told Darragh heâd had enough screens and he responded that she was ruining his life.
âI knew this was another confirmation [THAT]I needed to do my plan,â she told a consulting psychiatrist in Tallaght University Hospital.
She remembered looking at the clock at about 12pm and thinking, âI just had to end our suffering.â
As she suffocated him using lengths of tape and a plastic bag, âI wanted to stop but didnât think I could.â
At 12.39pm she got a text from her niece about wedding invites. She responded, âSo exciting.â
At that stage, Darragh may already have been dead. âIâm not sure about CarlaâŚI remember replying âitâs so excitingâ, and thinking look what Iâve just done, or look what Iâm in the process of doing,â she told gardaĂ.
She carried the bodies of Darragh and Carla upstairs. She realised Carla was still breathing, so she held her nose until she stopped.
She collected Conor early from school at 1.50pm, because she wanted âto make sure I was goneâ before Mr McGinley got home at 4pm.
Nothing untoward
There, she exchanged brief words with another parent and the school secretary. She was texting her husband about this time about his plans for coming home, and showed no sign anything was wrong. There was ânothing untoward or strange at allâ in her behaviour, Ms Lawlor noted.
They stopped on the way home so that Conor could get his favourite roll in Tesco. At this stage Ms Morley said she âwas already regretting what I had done, but I didnât think I could stopâ.
While he was having his 15 minutes of screen time, she wrote a note that she would stick to a bicycle in the hall.
âDonât go upstairs. Phone 911. Iâm sorry,â it stated.
Flowers are seen outside the home of Andrew McGinley and Deirdre Morley following the deaths of their three children. Photograph: Stephen Colllins/Collins.
Conorâs final moments were spent with his mother, watching Jurassic World. By now, she was wavering in her plan.
âHe was just being really good.â
At that stage, she told gardaĂ: âIâm thinking I canât do this. This is awfulâŚI canât not do this because the other two are dead. How would he live with that? How would he live knowing that his mother killed his siblings?â
She persuaded him to put tape on his mouth and a bag on his head by pretending it was a game. âWhen I tightened it, I think he got frightened. Itâs horrific, I know itâs horrific,â she said in her garda interviews four days later.
âHe said âMum, stopâ, and I said, âIâm really sorryâ.â
At this point, she was asked if she wanted a glass of water. âI just want them back,â she replied.
Asked later by forensic psychiatrist Dr Mary Davoren if she knew what she had done was wrong, Ms Morley replied: âI must have known it was wrong at some level because I waited for Andrew to be away to do it.â
She remembered thinking, âwhat if I donât die?â and that if she survived, she would have to âspend my whole life in prison.â
After she had killed the children, she ingested at least 13 tablets, and brought a half bottle of wine with her in the car as she left the house at 4.10pm and drove to a N7 flyover bridge. She intended to end her life there.
At 5.10pm, there was another phone call with her husband, updating her on his timeline. But the drugs took hold by 5.35pm, and she crashed her car into a verge.
A woman passing in another car, nurse Deirdre Gorman, saw her slumped over the wheel and came to her assistance and brought her home. âI donât remember anything else until I woke up in hospital on Sunday.â
When Mr McGinley arrived home after 7pm, his wife was collapsed outside the house being tended to by paramedics and members of the ambulance service, and nobody could tell him where the children were. It was he who found Conorâs body in the play tent downstairs.
The court heard that efforts were made to keep Mr McGinley out of the bedroom where Darragh and Carlaâs bodies lay, but they were not successful.
âAt that point, the level of distress was extraordinarily high,â the court heard.
When Ms Morley came out of her induced coma, her remorse, guilt and hopelessness at what she had done were immediate and overwhelming. On January 28th, she told a psychiatrist, âI wish I had a time machine.â
Three days later, now on an anti-psychotic drug, she was calm, but heartbroken. But she told doctors âthe grief was unbearable. She wanted a magic wand to go back three weeks and ask for help.â
If you are affected by issues in this article you can call Pieta House 1800 247247 or text âHELPâ to 51444, Contact Aware at 1800 80 4848 or supportmail@aware.ie or the Samaritans at 116123 or jo@samaritans.ie. You can also text âHELLOâ to 50808
I read it to herself yesterday evening to get her opinion on it. I woke up in the night thinking about it and couldnât get back to sleep.
Iâd honestly wish I hadnât read it.
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TBH I made a post a while back saying there was too much sympathy for men who do this kind of thing and it got about 15 likes. I donât have any answers though.
Iâm not even sure its worth going too deeply into, but credit to him also given it was stated their relationship and dealings were purely logistical for a while.
Aye, I didnt sleep too well last night either. The mind is a horrifyingly fragile box.
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It made something abstract a bit too concrete. Iâm feeling queasy thinking about it now tbh.
Sometimes people get broken, and thereâs no fixing them
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Very true. The actions of an insane person wont make sense to a sane one
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I think any parent who takes their childrens lives in that way and there have been numerous cases of it in the past few years have just lost the plot really. Theyâre not thinking straight, they are clinically insane. There is no real explaining it other than that. I donât think you have to be evil, if they were evil then surely these children or their families would have been subjected to that kind of behaviour from the outset.
Yer man in Cavan was branded pure evil but I donât see it as any different to this. Itâs the same state of mind to take your kids and that. The notion that because he transferred money to his family or whatever makes him 10x worse is mad to me, if he was capable of taking his children then his whole thought process and mind was capable of doing anything.
Itâs hard to unravel the human mind at times and what anyone could be capable of really. Men are certainly judged in a much harsher light in these circumstances though which I think is wrong.
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Thatâs fair enough but I donât see why a few peopleâs first thoughts are - but what about men.
I agree youâd have to be literally insane to take the lives of your own children. But women / mothers and fathers will always be treated differently when it comes to kids in nearly every regard. Iâm not saying thatâs how it should be or if itâs fair but thatâs how it is. Obviously women carry and give birth and while a manâs love for his children is no less the thoughts of a mother killing her children will always be treated differently to a father.
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Because of the different portrayals.
When itâs a man itâs because he was twisted and evil. If it was a woman she was troubled of mentally unwell.
They took their kids lives, unless they had a history or abusing their kids of partner up until that point I think it is clearly some mental/insanity issue that took hold.
Itâs horrific but I wouldnât be one to judge these people with saying things like evil.
What happened in Cavan was horrific but how is one person portrayed as evil and twisted and other as mentally unwell.
There are people who are genuinely evil and twisted out there - they know what they are doing and enjoy it and there are people who are just not mentally there and a danger to society and sometimes these things can happen very quickly before they can be acted upon.
Itâs certainly one of those horrific situations that I cant get any sort of clear thought on it.
Firstly, the actual action itself. I dont know if its selfish or just putting my head in the sand, but even seeing his twitter account with the conors clips and videos of his kids, I just cant watch it. I still wont read the reports in the papers about it. It just doesnt bear thinking about what happened and find it extremely hard to make any sense of it at all.
The other thing is the whole father/mother differences of reactions. I do find it strange. When a mother does it, there usually is an outpouring of sympathy and grief, whereas when a father does it, its rare any sympathy is shown and they are evil cunts. I have total sympathy for the woman in this case, its clear she had issues and the fact the childrens father has been so understanding about it all makes it all the more sympathetic. But in other cases, should we have sympathy for the father who committed these awful murders? I dont know how you could, but how does that square up then with having sympathy for the mothers involved?
In the scheme of things, whether you have sympathy or not for the person who committed these murders is neither here nor there. The children ultimately have been murdered and for the remaining family to be able to move on and live their lives afterwards must be unbearable. Its just truly awful.
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I suppose that in the Cavan case the motives seemed personal, he was about to be shown up and possibly slightly humiliated, and there seemed an element of viciousness against the wife, and premeditation with the money. This lady had no motive it would seem to me other than mental health, and clearly professionals feared for her children, or had concerns about them for quite a while, otherwise, why ask her poor husband.
Anyhow. Thereâs no reason to it. It just is. Itâs just awful, and Iâll try an out it to one side.