Garda are not treating as malicious a fire which claimed the lives of two people in Gort. Ben Whiteman (38) and Nuala Sweeney (65) died in the fire at Tom O’Donnell’s Flats, Station Road, Gort on Thursday morning last.
Friends and relatives of Mr Whiteman gathered at Mullin’s Funeral Home in Gort on Monday to bid farewell to the British national, before a private cremation in Cork on Tuesday.
Emergency services were called to the fire at 2.50am on Thursday morning. The fire was brought under control by Gort and Loughrea fire services. Two bodies were taken from the damaged building and removed to University Hospital Galway. No one else was injured in the incident.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.