Clodagh’s sister, Jacqueline, wins non-fiction book award
Jacqueline Connolly, sister of the late Clodagh Hawe, has once again called for the full publication of the Garda Serious Crime Review completed in 2019 into the murder of her sister Clodagh and nephews Liam, Niall and Ryan.
In August 2016, husband and dad Alan Hawe, a vice-principal at the local national school, killed his family before taking his own life at the home they shared near Ballyjamesduff.
Jacqueline has long argued that releasing the review would deepen public understanding of the behaviours associated with “family annihilators” and potentially help prevent future such tragedies from occurring.
Her latest appeal to newly installed Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly came at the An Post Book Awards, where she won Non-Fiction Book of the Year for Deadly Silence: A Sister’s Battle to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of Clodagh and Her Sons by Alan Hawe.
Addressing attendees at the Convention Centre in Dublin, the Cavan woman said sharing her story had been painful but necessary to move forward national conversations about domestic violence, coercive control, and “its very worst manifestation – family annihilation”.
Turning to the Garda review, she said: “There are findings in that in-depth review, which took place over four years, that need to be in the public domain.
“Yet even our own family has never been furnished with the actual report, only appraised of its contents. The 800-page report itself is sitting gathering dust on a shelf somewhere.”
Using the awards as a platform, she issued a direct appeal: “Tonight, I publicly ask Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly for its release. No family should ever have to go through what we’ve been through.”
Connolly said the award honoured her sister Clodagh, her nephews, all survivors and victims of domestic violence; as well as her late husband Richie and brother Tadhg.
She also noted that, while profound loss never fully recedes, her “quest for truth” continues to drive her efforts to reshape policy.