Dads go on murder spree (Ireland)

The headline below tells you almost nothing about the "murder spree" that went on in Ireland this past week.

What we have here are two "unrelated" incidences which are actually quite related: they're all about violent, control freak fathers murdering "their" women and children and anybody else who happens to be an inconvenient witness to the crime. It's all about male pattern violence.

First, we have a deadbeat UNNAMED DAD, who stabbed to death his 3-year-old son, a 5-month-old daughter, the children's mom (his ex-partner), and a female friend of the mom's.

Second, we have deadbeat dad JOHN BUTLER, who strangled to death his 7-year-old and 2-year-old daughters, before offing himself in a car crash. It seems Daddy attacked them after the mother left for work.

I dare say that if two Irish mothers had gone on a "murder spree," the fact that the killers were mothers would have been reported as a central fact, and not obfuscated as it was here. And then we'd get commentators wringing their hands and spinning out long-winded speculation as to why a mother would kill her children and whether this is related to feminism, the decline in modern morals, and so forth. By contrast, the media and the public mostly yawn when a father kills his kids. Despicable and sad--but true.

Hat tip to Annie.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/seven-dead-after-irish-murder-sprees-20101117-17waz.html

Seven dead after Irish murder sprees
November 17, 2010 - 8:19AM

Four young children, a mother and her friend were killed in Ireland on Tuesday when one man went on a savage murder spree and another man died in a devastating murder-suicide.

One family was knifed to death in the west of Ireland when a man allegedly stabbed his three-year-old son, a five-month-old girl, their mother and her friend.

Earlier, a father-of-two strangled his seven-year-old and two-year-old daughters before killing himself in a village on the south coast.

There was nothing to connect the two horrific incidents.

The prime suspect in the quadruple murder in Newcastle West, County Limerick, was arrested a few hours after the bodies of his ex-partner, Sarah Hines, 25, their son Reece and daughter Amy were found along with a 21-year-old female friend.

The youngsters were found stabbed to death in bloodstained rooms in the downstairs of a rented home in the Hazlegrove estate and the women upstairs.

The horrific killings were uncovered as detectives attempted to piece together the movements of a father-of-two after a suspected murder-suicide in County Cork.

Unemployed John Butler, 43, was not known to have been in turmoil before he attacked his girls, Zoe and Ella, doused his car in petrol and crashed it into a ditch two miles from the family bungalow overlooking Ballycotton fishing port.

Local gardai, Ireland's national police, found the two girls dead in the living room minutes after finding the car ablaze.

It is believed the father, a former steel worker and builder who had not worked for several months, attacked them after their mother Oonagh left for work in the Revenue offices in Cork city.

Both houses were sealed off as forensic experts from the State Pathologists office were called in.

It is understood neither man had a steady job.

A technical examination of the house in Limerick was delayed until Wednesday morning after local officers were alerted and discovered the two youngsters dead downstairs and the women upstairs.

Police in Cork discovered the two young Butler girls dead in a living room after a neighbour raised concerns that they had not turned up at school.

Health chiefs arranged for counsellors to support relatives and friends in both communities as they tried to come to terms with the deaths.