Woman charged following south Dublin stabbing death

Victim (42) found dead by his father in hallway of Rathfarnham property

Tyrone McKenna, a 43-year-old with an address in Rathfarnham, south Dublin, was found with stab wounds at the bottom of the stairs in the house he shared with his father. File photograph: Frank Miller/The Irish Times
Tyrone McKenna, a 43-year-old with an address in Rathfarnham, south Dublin, was found with stab wounds at the bottom of the stairs in the house he shared with his father. File photograph: Frank Miller/The Irish Times

A woman in her 40s has been charged in connection with the stabbing to death of a man at his home in south Dublin earlier this week.

Tyrone McKenna, a 43-year-old with an address in Rathfarnham, was found with stab wounds at the bottom of the stairs in the house he shared with his father.

A single man, he had been in a relationship for a brief period with a female foreign national who had been a visitor to the house in recent months.

His remains were discovered on Thursday evening when the dead man’s father returned to the property at Marley Court South.

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The alarm was raised and when gardaí and paramedics arrived, Mr McKenna was pronounced dead at the scene.

The house was sealed off and the body remained there overnight.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis carried out a preliminary examination of the body at the scene yesterday morning before it was removed for a full postmortem.

The results of that examination have not been released, though Garda sources said Mr McKenna has been stabbed in the back and has sustained a number of wounds.

There was a large amount of blood in the hallway and on the stairs and gardaí believe Mr McKenna may have been stabbed upstairs before trying to come down, possibly to call for help, but he succumbed to his injuries.

Detectives are operating on the theory that Mr McKenna knew his killer.

He was involved in a publishing organisation called the Refugee Press which aims to give refugees and asylum seekers an outlet to express themselves through poetry and prose.

Immediately after Mr McKenna’s body was found, gardaí identified a person of interest they wanted to speak to about the killing.

Initial efforts to locate her were not successful, but she was then arrested yesterday morning.

The woman is expected to appear before a sitting of the Dublin Districk Court this morning charged in connection with the stabbing.

The property where the killing took place underwent an examination by members of the Garda Technical Bureau yesterday.

Conor Lally

Conor Lally

Conor Lally is Security and Crime Editor of The Irish Times