Grieving Dad Andrew McGinley has revealed he wants to divorce the wife who killed his children - but he fears losing their family home.
In an exclusive interview with The Star today, Mr McGinley whose children Conor, 9, Darragh, 7, and Carla, 3, were killed by their mother Deirdre in January 2020, says he’s come to the painful decision to end their marriage - and revealed his fears that he may have to sell their family home in the process. “I’m moving forward with the divorce and I may have to sell up with it,” Andrew told this paper in an interview at his home in Newcastle, West Dublin where the horrific incident occurred on January 24, 2020.
“I may have to sell the house if that is contested, which saddens me. If she is looking for half the house then I may have to sell the house.” Andrew also revealed that Ms Morley, who is in Dublin’s Central Mental Hospital after being found not guilty of the children’s murders by reason of insanity, is currently refusing to see him.
“I’ve attempted to contact her but she doesn’t want to speak to me,” he said. Sitting in the kitchen of the home where his children were killed, Andrew says it is the place where all his memories of them reside - and it would deeply hurt him to have to leave it all behind.
He says he and his wife, who could be released back into society in just a few years, have a joint mortgage, and he understands that he may have to give her half. He therefore feels he will have no option but to sell the house despite wanting to hold onto the memories there.
“If she’s looking for half the house then I’ll have to sell the house. I won’t have a choice. I can’t afford to buy her out. It is very sad,” he said. “But I’ll have to make my peace with it. Hopefully I’ll have time to do that."
But he says if the situation were reversed, he would give the house over to Deirdre without contest. "I know I would if the shoe was on the other foot, I would. I’d be going: there’s the keys.”
And Andrew, who is now engaged in numerous charitable causes and events in memory of his children, says getting up every morning remains a struggle -and he can’t get over what happened to them. “Every day is, it hits me like a sledgehammer every morning that the kids are dead. As soon as I wake up it’s like a bang and then you start your day.
“You just learn to live with it. It doesn’t get easier. I miss them every night and every day .”As I sit here chatting to you I think about how they’d be here in and out of her like yoyos on a day like today. “It never leaves you. I think you just learn to live with it better. It’s still somewhat unbelievable. Sometimes you just think, is this real? I don’t feel that it’s real.
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“I remember standing out there on that night and thinking this is stuff you read about and it happens in the States or somewhere.”
Over the last number of months Andrew has been coming to terms with the relationship he once had with Deirdre - but says after what happened, everything has changed. "It’s difficult because as I said I loved her up until the 24th.
“But one thing that sticks in my mind is what came out in the court case, which was Conor’s last words. So a lot of the time now when I think of Dee, I think of Conor’s last moments and his last words and that’s one thing I wish I didn’t know,” he said.
The heartbreaking last words that Andrew referred to were heard during Ms Morley’s trial last year - when it emerged that he said “Stop Mammy. What are you doing,” as she placed a bag on his head. Meanwhile Andrew has just completed his first book - a children’s tale based on a character created by his sons Darragh and Conor.
“These are the projects that are keeping me going. I have finished my book which is based on a character that Conor and Darragh created named Prestin. I’m hoping to submit that to publishers and I’ve someone helping me with a synopsis and the illustrator is Caoimhe Hennessy.
“The draft of the book is finished and I hope to get some interest now from publishers. I’m hoping at some stage next year the first Prestin book will hit the shelves,” he said. The project is just one of many Andrew is occupying his time with - as he admits he finds the prospect of returning to his old job difficult.
“I’ve changed as a person. I’ve thought about trying to go back to work but my whole perspective on life has changed which doesn’t really tie in with what I did before. I’ve a different mindset about life and I would struggle to go back to the world that I once worked in,” he said.
“So maybe this will work out for me, maybe it won’t. But I hope it will.”
Over the next number of months Andrew is also involved in a number of other causes - with his charity ‘As Darragh Did’ teaming up with Irish Rail to give young people a chance at some interesting prizes. “We’re constantly in fundraising mode for ‘As Darragh Did.’ To date we’ve helped over 62 groups across the country - from Donegal to Cork and from Galway and Limerick over to Dublin,” Andrew said.
“One way to raise funds is through various different raffles and fundraising activities so I was fortunate enough to know the team from Irish Rail. They supported the last ‘Snowman for Carla’ colouring competition with billboards, etc down in their stations.
“They asked if I wanted some prizes for a raffle and I said sure, of course I do. So we have two prizes - the first is a visit to the Inchicore railworks and a tour of the railworks there which also includes a go on the simulator,” he explained. “I’ve another prize then of tickets for the Santa train which hasn’t run since 2019 due the Covid pandemic.”
Anyone interested in that competition can find out more through iDonate or by visiting the ‘As Darragh Did’ website. Meanwhile Andrew says he is giving away a signed Leinster jersey and an Ireland jersey as part of a quarterly giveaway for those who are making monthly donations to his charity.
His ‘Snowman for Carla’ competition is also running until September - allowing children to download a drawing to colour in and send back for a chance to win more prizes. All of this, he says, is what keeps him going and makes him get out of bed in the morning.
Andrew is still running his ‘Conors Clips’ page on Youtube and Twitter and says he was fortunate enough to recently discover more videos of his son to upload online - after thinking he’d run out. “I’ve fortunately found some more video clips from Conor’s younger days that I’m converting to get them all up on Youtube. I had run out of videos but I’ve just in the last couple of weeks found some on an old camcorder from way back in 2010,” he said.
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