THE sister of murdered Clodagh Hawe has said she needed to see Alan Hawe exhumed from the family grave so that Clodagh and her sons could rest in peace.
Jacqueline Connolly was speaking on both BBC Radio and Northern Sound about an exhumation that took place in Ireland yesterday, May 10.
Clodagh Hawe and her three sons, Liam, Niall and Ryan, were killed in a murder-suicide by husband and father Alan Hawe in Co. Cavan last August.
Alan and Clodagh Hawe were later buried with their sons in a grave in St Mary's Cemetery in Castlerahan.
In the early hours of yesterday morning, Alan Hawe was removed from the family grave and brought to Dublin to be cremated, with his ashes returned to his family in Kilkenny.
On Northern Sound this morning, Ms Connolly said she attended the exhumation because she needed to see Alan Hawe leave the plot.
"For my own mental state, I needed to see him go, I needed to see for myself that Clodagh and the boys are now going to rest in peace.
Ms Connolly also said Alan Hawe had been trusted, and it was hard to "take in" what had happened.
"We knew him for 20 years. It would be unrealistic to turn completely and do full circle when you have trusted someone for 20 years - to actually logically take in that he has murdered your family and wiped them all out and that he is a mass murderer.
"That is never something that comes into your head, you're just in total shock," she said.
Alan Hawe, left, murdered his wife Clodagh and their three sons in August of last year. (Picture: RTÉ News)Speaking on BBC Radio in Northern Ireland, Ms Connolly said Clodagh was a "lovely, kind sister" and her nephews were so "full of life."
"I used to call her golden girl, in my eyes, she never put a foot wrong. She was just lovely. Clodagh was wonderful and a very kind sister. She was always very level-headed.
"Growing up the kids were always so respectful. They were all very talented in different ways.
"Liam was athletic, and Niall was big into building lego and baking and Ryan... when Ryan was telling you a story, his eyes would be dancing in his head. He was just so full of life.
"I always think about the day I got married and I talked about Clodagh and what a wonderful sister she was and a wonderful mother she was. I said that if I was ever going to be happy, I'd be as happy as she was," she added.
Asked about how Clodagh's family have recovered from their deaths, Ms Connolly said: "You don't recover, we'll never recover.
"How will we ever have a life when Alan Hawe has murdered Clodagh, Liam, Niall and Ryan? What kind of a life is that to live?"
See More: Featured, Irish, Newslettertop
