Fire in Carrickmines, 10 years on: ‘Some don’t want to talk, some are angry’

In the early hours of October 10th, 2015, a fire engulfed a mobile home on a Dublin halting site, killing 10 people. A decade on, relatives left behind still struggle with their loss

Ben Lynch with framed photographs of family members who died in the fire. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Ben Lynch with framed photographs of family members who died in the fire. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Everything about next Friday will be “difficult”, says Ben Lynch.

It marks the 10th anniversary of the day he lost eight family members in the Carrickmines fire tragedy. In the early hours of October 10th, 2015, a fire engulfed a mobile home at a temporary halting site on the Glenamuck Road in Carrickmines, south Co Dublin.

Ten people, including five children, were killed in what remains the worst fire tragedy since the 1981 Stardust nightclub disaster that killed 48.

A 2019 inquest found the Carrickmines fire started in an overheated chip-pan. All 10 died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning.

“It will all bring back a lot of memories,” says Lynch of the anniversary, speaking at his home in Bray, Co Wicklow.

“You don’t want to think about this all the time, but I do think about them every day. It’s hard to believe so many years have passed and it feels like it was only yesterday. It is still very hard.”

Ben lost siblings, nieces and nephews in the fire.

Two brothers, Jimmy (39) and Willy (25), and a sister, Sylvia (30), died that night. Thomas Connors (27), Sylvia’s husband, and the couple’s three children – Jim (5), Christy (3) and six-month-old Mary – also died, alongside Willy’s partner, Tara Gilbert, her daughter, Jodie (9), and their daughter, Kelsey (4).

A plaque in memory of family members who died in the fire. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
A plaque in memory of family members who died in the fire. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Harry Gilbert lives just across from the Lynch family home; his daughter Tara died – she was 14 weeks pregnant – as well as two of his grandchildren.

Three years later the widower lost his remaining child, Tara’s twin, Amanda, a mother of two, who took her own life in July 2018.

Woman never got over twin’s death in Carrickmines fire, funeral toldOpens in new window ]

“She couldn’t get over it, just couldn’t get over it,” says Harry at his home.

“I tried to look after her. I told her: ‘We are all going through it, Amanda; we will get through it together.’ She said she had lost the other half of herself.”

Josie Connors lived at the Carrickmines site and was there on the night of the fire, which killed her son Thomas, daughter-in-law Sylvia and three grandchildren.

The couple’s two surviving sons, Tom (now 14) and Mick (17) live with Josie at a housing scheme built by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council just metres from the site.

Josie Connors and with her grandson Thomas, then aged four, at a temporary home on Ballyogan Road, Leopardstown, in 2016. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons
Josie Connors and with her grandson Thomas, then aged four, at a temporary home on Ballyogan Road, Leopardstown, in 2016. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

Tom was rescued from the fire by his then 14-year-old uncle. Mick had stayed in his grandparents’ trailer that night.

Asked how she feels about the coming anniversary, her face crumples. She bows her head and weeps for several minutes.

“I don’t know how I am even here for it – I don’t know.”

Her husband, Jim, died in recent years and she has been in bad health, especially in the past few months. She gets very depressed.

“I can be very miserable. That isn’t even the word for it. I haven’t a word big enough for it. Because it is not only me. Whatever way I manage, I am a bit older, but them young boys, I worry about them,” she says.

On the night of the fire, Tara, Willy and their children, who lived in a mobile home beside the Lynch family home, were visiting Thomas and Sylvia to celebrate a birthday. They brought Jimmy, who had sustained an injury some years previously, as he could not be left alone.

The extended Connors family had lived at the site since 2008. It had been established by the council under emergency powers following the death of another of Josie’s children, Michael, in a crash where they then lived by the side of the road in Sandyford in 2007.

Sylvia and Thomas moved in with the council’s knowledge, in 2015.

The 2019 inquest heard the families had paid rent to the council. A council caretaker visited regularly. The site had electricity and a water supply, provided by the council, which had also laid hard ground for the mobile homes.

On the night of the fire 29 people were staying at the site, some in trailers almost touching they were so close together.

Concerns were raised about the fire brigade’s access to a water hydrant, though the council insisted this had no material effect on the tragic outcome.

In the aftermath of tragedy, books of condolences were opened around the country.

The then taoiseach, Enda Kenny, visited the site as he ordered flags on government buildings be flown at half-mast for the funerals.

Harry Gilbert Fassaroe and Ben Lynch visit the graveyard in Bray. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Harry Gilbert Fassaroe and Ben Lynch visit the graveyard in Bray. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Government ministers, TDs and a representative for President Michael D Higgins attended the funerals in Bray and Sandyford, at which messages of condolence from Pope Francis were read.

The scale of the tragedy prompted debate about the unsafe and squalid conditions in which many Travellers lived, as it emerged that Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was one of 15 local authorities that had drawn down no funding for Traveller accommodation that year.

In the years since 2008 central funding for Traveller accommodation had collapsed, from €70 million in 2008 to €4.3 million in 2015

Since then, though Traveller accommodation funding was ramped up – reaching €13 million by 2019 – funds drawn down by councils remained significantly below what was allocated.

In 2019 just 66 per cent of the funding provided was spent by councils.

Since 2020 funding procedures have changed and only the total spent is published, with amounts ranging from €14.5 million in 2020 to €29.8 million in 2023. Last year €20.9 million was spent on Traveller accommodation.

Over the same period, the number of Traveller households have more than doubled since 2015, according to Department of Housing figures, from 6,109 to 12,367 in 2023.

Numbers on unauthorised sites – which are by the side of the road, often without running water or secure electricity – have increased from 534 to 576 in the same period, with households “doubling up” – meaning that they share halting site accommodation – increasing from 862 to 907.

The numbers in official halting sites, group housing schemes and local authority housing and owner-occupied have also increased, though the numbers in private rented have fallen significantly, from 2,480 to 1,514.

Harry Gilbert with framed photographs of Tara; Harry, Jodie and Kelsey; and Amanda, who took her own life following the fire. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Harry Gilbert with framed photographs of Tara; Harry, Jodie and Kelsey; and Amanda, who took her own life following the fire. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

In their homes the grieving families keep the memories of loved ones close.

All speak of how “good” and “happy” their families were before the fire and describe how they try to cope with the enormity of their grief.

In Josie’s home there is a large photo of Thomas and Sylvia on the livingroom wall.

“I think of them every day. Every time you look at the children, you’re thinking about them. Tom is the very same as his dad,” she says of one of the couple’s two surviving sons.

“It is impossible not to think about them.”

I think we got no justice for our family dying. It was brushed under the table

—  Ben Lynch

She struggles financially, on a widow’s pension with additional supports coming in respect of the boys. In particular, she says, the house she rents from the council is cold.

“I have central heating but I am not able to pay for it. I would love an old range, to heat the rads and the water,” she says.

She sleeps in the livingroom by the fire, as do the boys, in the winter. “A stove – it would make a big difference to be warm here,” she says.

She will bring the boys to the graves of their parents and siblings in Wexford for the anniversary.

In the Gilbert home, photographs of twins Tara and Amanda, and Tara’s children Jody and Kelsey are everywhere, alongside those of Harry’s late wife, Dolores.

Harry Gilbert at the grave. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Harry Gilbert at the grave. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

“I’d say they were about 10 when their mother died,” says Harry. “It was tough going at times. I’d always be chasing them to clean up after themselves, worrying about them when they were out ... We had a good life.”

In the years after his daughters’ deaths, his work as a factory maintenance-man “relaxed [his] mind”.

But he retired as Covid hit, in 2020.

“It has started to hit me. Maybe now I could do with counselling. For years, still, it’s like a dream really. You think: ‘She’ll be in the door in a minute’ – but no. It is not happening.

“I see blond girls like Tara or Amanda in the street and think for a second, but no.

“I pray now every day,” he says. “I could cry now when you walk out that door. It is hard, very hard. It is like someone sticking a knife in you and you’re not dead. The pain – I feel it.

“Loneliness is a terrible thing ... For my grandchildren’s sake I have to try to keep strong.”

Ben Lynch at the grotto he keeps in memory of his loved ones. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Ben Lynch at the grotto he keeps in memory of his loved ones. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Ben Lynch, who is married with children, has built a grotto at their home in memory of the 10 and other family members who have died.

He feels a huge sense of injustice about what happened.

“It is hard to believe they were left there in accommodation that was only meant to be a couple of months, and it went to years,” he says.

“Then when the fire brigade came, they couldn’t get [quickly to] water. I think we got no justice for our family dying. It was brushed under the table.”

The wider Lynch family has been “left in an awful state” since the fire, says Ben.

“Lives have been destroyed. It is hard on everyone. Some don’t even want to talk, some are angry, some are still very sad,” says Lynch.

For a long time he was afraid to go out in case something might happen to him, leaving his family bereft.

Now, boxing-training helps his mental health. “I do a lot of walking too. That helps me,” he says.

A memorial Mass for all who died as a result of the Carrickmines fire will be celebrated in Bray’s Holy Redeemer Church at noon on Friday.

“The anniversary is a very big thing for me,” says Ben. “This was a tragedy but this is a celebration, saying we are still here and we won’t forget about them.”

A spokeswoman for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council said a minute’s silence would be observed at the council meeting on Monday, October 13th.

“Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those who lost their lives,” said the spokeswoman, “and we remain committed to working with the Traveller community and Traveller support organisations in the provision of services to meet the needs of the Traveller community in the county.”

Kitty Holland

Kitty Holland

Kitty Holland is Social Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times