Unacceptable silence

It’s been a little like the elephant in the room for me all week. Since I first heard of the fire in Omagh, I’ve checked Slugger every day to see what is being said. I am pretty amazed that it was never mentioned or covered by the site.

While I appreciate that much is, and remains speculation at this point in time, we are still potentially dealing with one of the most serious examples of domestic violence seen in Northern Ireland ever. For those who remain unaware of the situation, a family of 7 people died in Omagh last week in a house fire. It was fairly evident from early in the story that things were neither simple nor pleasant. It has since transpired that the father of the household, Arthur McElhill was on the sex offenders register. He has subsequently been depicted as an alcoholic and suffering from depression. It is alleged that McElhill set fire to his home, killing his wife and 5 children.

Northern Ireland seems to have spoken of little else in the past week, and the story has moved from fire officers extolling the virtues of smoke alarms to a deafening silence from those whose job it is to protect the innocent. It really isn’t good enough to dismiss this as a private affair. The safety and welfare of a family were at stake and were not protected. This has moved from being a personal tragedy to a matter that deserves public scrutiny and attention to ensure that the authorities can and must recognize and attempt to prevent such mass family murders in the future.


Discover more from Slugger O'Toole

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Categories Uncategorised

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.