Latest news with #Connemara
Irish Times
15 hours ago
- General
- Irish Times
Death row survivor Sonia ‘Sunny' Jacobs found ‘tranquility' in Connemara before death in house fire
Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs and her husband Peter Pringle lived out their lives in a place of breathtaking beauty and isolation. Each morning when they opened their curtains they had views of the blue-tinged Twelve Pins mountain range , rocky bogland and Lough Glenicmurrin. The 1970s-era bungalow where Ms Jacobs (76) and her caretaker Kevin Kelly (31) died in a house fire in the early hours of Tuesday morning is down a rough boreen. The area is now closed off with Garda tape. It seems scarcely believable that a woman who overcame so much in her life would succumb to the tragedy of a house fire along with a young man who had his whole life ahead of him. READ MORE [ Woman who died in Connemara house fire named as former US death row inmate Sunny Jacobs Opens in new window ] Sonny Jacobs pictured at the Cuirt International Festival of Literature in 2007. Photograph: Joe O'Shaughnessy. Ms Jacobs spent five years on death row in Florida and 16 years in prison for a murder she did not commit. While she was in prison, her parents, who were looking after her two children, were killed in a plane crash. She was released in 1992. Six years later, at a meeting organised by Amnesty International in Galway, she met Peter Pringle. He had also been on death row in Ireland for the murder of gardaí John Morley and Henry Byrne in July 1980. He too was exonerated having spent 14 years in jail. They moved twice in Connemara before settling in Glenicmurrin at the end of a row of about a dozen houses. The nearest town, Costelloe, is 15 minutes drive away. Despite their isolation, they regularly received visitors mostly in connection with the Sunny Centre, which she set up with Mr Pringle to campaign against the death penalty worldwide. Mr Pringle died in December 2023 and Ms Jacobs's beloved dog, Barney, died a short time after that. Postman Michael Leainde got to know the couple better than most. 'People are really shocked and it is only now they are coming to grips with what happened,' he said. 'She was very witty. I'd be talking to her every second day. If I said something and she didn't think it was right, she would say, 'Michael, you were wrong about that'. She was a great woman and we had great chats,' he said. Postman Michael Leainde got to know the couple better than most. Photograph: Ronan McGreevy He thought she and her husband found a happiness in the landscape of Connemara that had denied to them for so long in their lives. 'If you look around you, you have peace and tranquillity. When you get a little bit older in age, you want to have some peace in life. They really appreciated what they had here,' she said. Mr Leainde, who is also a local councillor, spoke to her last Thursday and said she was in great form. She had spoken to her son recently via video call, he recalled. A neighbour, Michael Walsh, said he knew her husband Mr Pringle very well and he would call in occasionally. They were a happy couple who moved to the location in their final years to the house their final location locally having rented an adjacent house for many years. She was a 'nice woman. We all felt sorry for her for all the years she spent in prison', he said. Ruairí McKiernan, a former member of the Council of State, a body that advises the president of Ireland, first met Ms Jacobs 18 years ago and they became good friends. Despite being 76, she worked until the end of her life talking, podcasting and advocating for the Sunny Foundation in the United States, he said in an online tribute. 'She never stopped giving, and, in all of this, she kept gratitude at the heart of her practice. Always grateful for beauty, for animals, for nature, for friendship, for life,' he said.
BBC News
2 days ago
- General
- BBC News
County Galway: Two people die after house fire in Connemara
A man and a woman have died following a house fire in Connemara, County and gardaí (Irish police) were alerted to the blaze at Gleann Mhic Mhuireann, near the village of Casla, at about 06:20 local time on bodies of the woman, who was in her 70s, and the man in his 30s were recovered from the property by firefighters. Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported that the cause of the fire is under examination but at this stage foul play is not suspected. It added that the dead woman is believed to be from the United States originally. Both bodies were taken to University Hospital Galway for post-mortem examinations and gardaÍ have appealed for witnesses.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Health
- Irish Times
Woman who died in Connemara house fire named as former US death row inmate Sunny Jacobs
A woman who spent five years on death row in the United States is one of the victims of the fire in Connemara which killed two people. Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs spent 16 years in a Florida prison over the murder of two police officers. She was named locally in Connemara as a victim of the fire, along with a man in his 30s who has not yet been publicly identified. Jacobs was in a car with her partner Jesse Tafero and her two children, aged 9 years and 10 months, when she became caught up in a fatal shooting incident at an Interstate 95 rest stop in 1976. READ MORE Jacobs and Tafero were sentenced to death while a third man, Walter Rhodes, who was in the back seat of the car, later confessed to the murder. Tafero was executed in 1990. Ms Jacobs was eventually acquitted in 1992 and released from jail. On a visit to Ireland in 1998 while she was campaigning at an Amnesty International event for the abolition of the death penalty, she met Irishman Peter Pringle. He had been sentenced to death in Ireland for the murder o f gardas John Morley and Henry Byrne during a bank robbery in Ballaghaderreen in July 1980. His death sentence, along with that of two other men, was commuted to 40 years in jail. Mr Pringle was acquitted of the killing at the Court of Appeal in 1995 after the court ruled the original verdict was unsafe and unsound. The couple married in 2012 and they moved to Connemara. Mr Pringle died in 2023. In 2008, Ms Jacobs published the bestselling book Stolen Time about her period in jail. Tuesday' fire broke out at a cottage near Casla, a village between Inverin and Carraroe, at about 6am. 'At approximately 6:20am, gardaí and fire services were alerted to a house fire at Gleann Mhic Mhuireann,' An Garda Síochána said in a statement. 'The fire was brought under control by Fire Services and the bodies of a woman aged in her 70s and a man in his 30s were recovered from inside the house.' A forensic examination of the cottage, of which the two deceased are believed to have been the only occupants of at the time, is being carried out. The bodies have been transported to the University Hospital Galway mortuary to undergo postmortems and the coroner has been notified. 'The results of the postmortems, along with the findings of the technical examination, will determine the course of the Garda investigation,' the Garda added. Three units of the County Galway Fire Service and fire personnel from Galway city attended the scene. An Garda Síochána is appealing to anyone with information about the incident to contact Clifden Garda station on 095 22500, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any garda station.
BreakingNews.ie
2 days ago
- General
- BreakingNews.ie
Two people die following house fire in Co Galway
Two people have died following a house fire in Connemara, Co Galway. According to the Irish Times , the fire broke out at a property near Casla, a village between Inverin and Carraroe, at about 6am. Advertisement In a statement, gardaí said: "Gardaí and fire services are currently at the scene of a house fire in Glenicmurrin, Co. Galway this morning, Tuesday 3rd June 2025. "The alarm was raised after 6:00 am this morning. "The scene is preserved and no further information is available at this time."
Irish Times
2 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
Two killed in Connemara house fire tragedy
Two people have died following a house fire in Connemara, Galway . The fire broke out at a property near Casla, a village between Inverin and Carraroe, at about 6am. Three units of the County Galway Fire Service along with fire personnel from Galway city attended the scene. A forensic examination of the cottage is being carried out. READ MORE The two dead are believed to have been the only occupants of the cottage at the time. In a statement, An Garda Síochana said: 'Gardaí and fire services are currently at the scene of a house fire in Glenicmurrin, Co Galway. The alarm was raised after 6:00am this morning. 'The scene is preserved and no further information is available at this time.' More to follow
