A man who is divorcing his wife after she killed his children now fears losing his family home, he has said.
Dad Andrew McGinley's children Conor, 9, Darragh, 7, and Carla, 3, were killed by their mother Deirdre Morely in January 2020.
The mum was alleged to have suffocated the children to death, but was ruled by the Central Criminal Court in May 2021 to be not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.
DublinLive reported Deirdre was sent to Dublin’s Central Mental Hospital and is currently refusing to see Andrew.
Now Andrew fears he will lose his family home after coming to the painful decision to end their marriage.
He said: "I’m moving forward with the divorce and I may have to sell up with it.
“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.”
“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.
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.
“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.
He added: “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."
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," he continued.
"I’ve a different mindset about life and I would struggle to go back to the world that I once worked in.
“So maybe this will work out for me, maybe it won’t. But I hope it will.”
