THE family of a Co Cavan woman whose husband murdered her and their three children has called for a full public inquiry into the case.
Clodagh Hawe (39) was killed by Alan Hawe in the family home near Ballyjamesduff on August 28 2016. The couple's children Liam (13), Niall (11) and Ryan (six) were also murdered by their father before he took his own life.
Clodagh's mother Mary Coll and sister Jacqueline Connolly told a Claire Byrne Live special on RTÉ last night that they wanted to speak out to protect other women who may be vulnerable and in danger.
Four weeks ago, they were officially refused a legal request for copies of Garda files on the murder investigation.
The pair called on Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to set up a special investigation unit into killings within families.
Mrs Connolly said her family initially got no support from gardaí.
Allison Morris: Her name was Clodagh - she was a victim, her killer was not
"There was no initial person with us on the day to say, you know, this has happened and take time or anything like that," she said.
"We were seeing things online, we were ringing our family liaison officer at one point to say 'please tell me he didn't kill her with an axe'. So it was the media that was informing us more so than anybody else initially."
Clodagh's family said all information gathered in the course of an investigation should be shared with a victim's next of kin as soon as possible.
They said after an inquest in a familicide case, a book of evidence should be published and that Tusla, the Republic's child and family protection agency, should monitor all such cases.
They also called on justice minister Charlie Flanagan to amend the Republic's 1965 Succession Act which makes the perpetrator or their family a beneficiary of the victim's estate.
Mrs Coll and Mrs Connolly said they only saw a copy of Alan Hawe's suicide note 16 months after the killings.
Read More: Clodagh Hawe's sister speaks of relief as killer exhumed from grave
"Reading the letter it would seem that he killed Clodagh first and he sat and he wrote five pages about how he felt, and how the truth was going to come out eventually and he reassured us that if it was any consolation that they were happy," Mrs Connolly said.
"And he then killed the boys and he came downstairs then and he wrote some more. And then he transferred money and he went about his business while his family were dead around him and he set out folders and wrote notes.
"At about half two that morning, he transferred about two and half thousand euro from the joint account to his own account so at that point he was a criminal and then he was fraudulently transferring money."
Clodagh's family also wanted a review of the Coroner’s Act and laws surrounding exhumations.
"The next day after the funeral we went to the graves and the horror of what we’d done, the stupor in our trauma, we had buried him with them," Mrs Connolly said.
Read More: Allison Morris: The premeditated nature of the Hawe killings is chilling
"We were initially told it would be no problem to have him moved but then we realised that the exhumation could not happen until Alan Hawe's next of kin applied for him to be moved. So we asked the Hawe family to move him. Eventually, they allowed it to happen."
The pair said the murders were planned and could not be explained as a violent act caused by depression.
"I wanted to shout from the rooftops, that’s not the truth, that’s not what happened," Mrs Coll said.
"We’ve been controlled since this happened by our decency, our sense of decency, but it’s not easy to sit and talk about this but we just feel that people need to be aware of the truth and that is the truth."
She added: "He never missed time from work, he was never sick."
"He had a position of responsibility," she said. "He showed no signs of depression, he was out, GAA, football, out and about."
