Heartbroken Dad Andrew McGinley has revealed he’s facing “debt” after having to hire lawyers ahead of his slain children’s inquest - and following his divorce.
Andrew’s children Conor (9), Darragh (7) and Carla (3) were killed by their mother Deirdre Morley at their home in Newcastle, west Dublin on January 24, 2020. Speaking today, Andrew revealed that he has now divorced Ms Morley, who was found not guilty of the murders by reason of insanity - and that he plans to leave the home in which they were killed following an “agreement” with her.
Andrew was speaking to The Irish Mirror in light of new calls this week by the Children’s Ombudsman for a child death review process to be implemented by the Government as an “urgent necessity” to aid bereaved families in their quest for transparency.
Backing the findings of the Ombudsman’s report, Andrew says it is high time grieving families can get the answers they deserve from one investigating body - rather than wading through what he says is “red tape and bureaucracy.”
“Everything just seems to be a fight. You feel like you’re banging your head against the wall,” he said of his own multiple battles - including trying to garner information from the HSE about his former wife’s mental health care in the lead-up to his children’s deaths.
“You feel like you’re wading through a swamp of red tape and bureaucracy but you’ve come so far, there’s no point in turning back. It is a constant fight.”
Andrew revealed he has formally divorced Morley, and the pair have reached an agreement on the house he currently still lives in in Newcastle, west Dublin, where she took the lives of his three children. Speaking about that and the impact of having to soon leave that home, Andrew told us: “There is an agreement on the house. It's a mutual agreement. When I leave the house it will be an impact. I suppose it is the only physical location aside from their grave that I have of them and the only location where there were a lot of happy memories, despite what happened there,” he said.
“The kids were really happy in that house. But the day will come where I’ll be leaving the house. It will be a wrench but you can only deal with that once it happens.”
The heartbroken Dad, who has not stopped campaigning and doing selfless charity work since his children’s death, also revealed that he’s had to pay solicitors as he faces an unprecedented battle around an as of yet to be held inquest into his children’s deaths.
“It's been over five years since Conor, Daragh and Carla were murdered. I was given information that they were trying to schedule the inquest at the coroner’s court for November 2021. Here we are three and a half years on and the inquest hasn’t taken place. Now I’m aware that delay does not lie with the coroner and does not lie with me. I am infuriated by the reason for the delay,” he told us.
“I am left with a significant legal bill because other interested parties have legal counsel with them or were represented by legal counsel at the opening of the inquest. So I’m the only eejit paying. As a taxpayer I feel like I’m paying the legal counsel that’s there to challenge everything I say.”
Andrew is hoping to widen the scope of the coroner’s inquest in line with a finding of the Supreme Court to investigate whether anything can be done to prevent deaths such as this from happening again. However he says he has been told that a submission had been put in to restrict the scale of the inquiry. “I’m running up legal costs. Every phone call and effort I make to try and get information I am met with legal challenges and therefore there’s legal costs for me.
“So to try to make change means me having to run up legal costs and go into debt. I didn’t expect to have to engage legal counsel for my own children’s inquest. Everything seems to be a fight, a battle. “I’ve been told the reason why it’s been delayed. My understanding is there was one submission to restrict the scope of the inquest. So I had to engage with legal counsel to put in a submission as to why we want the extended scope method,” Andrew revealed.
This week the Children’s Ombudsman published a report which highlighted the need for there to be an independent statutory body to review children’s deaths. The report highlighted how in many cases grieving families could not access information from bodies such as the HSE and Tusla - with Ombudsman Niall Muldoon saying of the constant delay: "We've waited too long and every year we wait, there's hundreds of children dying.”
Backing the report, Andrew says that while it comes too little too late for him, an independent body could help so many grieving families who are desperate for information about how their children died.
“For me it was a very good report. Reading elements of it, it talks about State agencies not working with each other - and that’s what I see at the moment,” Andrew said. “One state agency might have information that could help another state agency but within the report they detail how State bodies are advised to take out Freedom of Information requests to get information from other State bodies. It’s shocking to read that some families aren't getting access to reports about the deaths of their own children.
“It's way too late for me. I just feel that there needs to be a body, which the Ombudsman has called for, to look into all child deaths. I feel that would be important. (But) I feel like I’m alone just trying to get information and I’m running up legal fees. For me to chase anything you're told there will be a cost to this and that.
“I could just bury my head in the sand and say right my kids are dead, move on. But I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try to make change because I can see where the problems were. “I can see where decisions were made and actions were taken and had those decisions or actions been different then Conor, Darragh and Carla would be alive today,” he added.
The Ombudsman’s report highlighted a number of case studies of families who have lost children in a number of traumatic circumstances. Andrew says he sympathises with those cases - and spoke of how he continues to be traumatised to this day by what happened to his own children.
“Even the clips that they showed on the news in relation to other families, it just breaks your heart. If you don’t experience it you don’t know about it. But it is just a constant, constant battle. On top of that you have the likes of birthdays, Father's Day is a tough one, Christmas.
“You could be in the supermarket and something triggers you. I went to an event with my employer last week and I don’t know why I got triggered by it. I was so emotional and I don’t know why. I can’t explain it now but it just catches you sometimes and grinds you to a halt. It almost takes away everything from you and resets you. You think you’re doing well and you’re coping, you know?”
Venting his frustration at the amount of time it is taking to elicit the change he believes there needs to be Andrew added: "This (new statutory body) was first called for by Dr Ursula Kilkelly in 2007 and the Ombudsman is still calling for it. Like 18 years have passed. You look at all the dates within that report. There’s a report done and a review done and nothing has changed. It’s still shit for grieving families. With every day that passes and no change is made, I believe that children are at risk.
Andrew is also launching his second ‘Walk the Walk’ event on April 12 - a sponsored 30km walk along the Royal Canal - with all donations going directly to the charity. All entrants to that event will also get to attend a comedy gig afterwards. Further details on the event can be found by clicking this link: https://www.idonate.ie/event/WalkingtheWalkwithAsDarraghDidonApril20thand21stin2024
You can also visit Andrew’s charity main homepage by clicking on https://asdarraghdid.ie
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