Family of Clodagh Hawe face debts of €50,000 in funeral and legal costs

The family of Clodagh Hawe say that they are struggling to pay the large funeral and legal costs that have occurred since her death.

Clodagh and her three sons were murdered by her husband Alan in 2016. After her death, Clodagh's family discovered that her husband had transferred all of the family's money into his account before the horrific crime so that his family would be the only beneficiaries. The family also came into legal troubles when they wanted Alan's body exhumed from the grave he shared with his wife and three children. Clodagh's mother and sister said they felt like they had no rights when they discovered they would have to ask Alan's family for permission to remove his body from the shared grave. They were also shocked to find that under the Succession Act they were entitled to nothing as the Hawe family would be the sole beneficiaries. According to an interview in the Sunday Independent, Clodagh's sister Jacqueline said;

"It must be reformed as soon as possible so that murderers, or their family if they end their own life, do not financially benefit from their crime. Trying to get answers to our questions, plus the expenses for the funerals and legal costs we had for the inquest, have all added up to more than €50,000 - bills my mother, retired, and I, a widow, are struggling to pay."

Jacqueline and her mother Mary are continuing to fight to find out the answers to why Alan Hawe murdered his family and to try and change the laws so that no other family has to go through what they have.