Post-mortem examinations are due to take place over the coming days on the bodies of three brothers which were discovered in the Mitchelstown area.

The three men have been named locally as members of the Hennessy family.

The bodies of Paddy (60) and Willie (66) were found near a farmhouse at Curraghgorm, near Mitchelstown yesterday.

The body of 59-year old Johnny was discovered several hours later in a river around 5km away.

Gardaí in Mitchelstown were alerted to an incident at a farmhouse and lands at Curragorm, Mitchelstown on Thursday night where the bodies of two men were discovered.

On Friday morning, Gardaí commenced the search for a third male also related, who was believed to be driving a Red Toyota Corolla Carvan, 03 WW 1556.

The car was found by Gardaí parked at an unconnected farmhouse Killacluig, Mitchelstown and shortly after, it was confirmed that the body of a third man had been discovered in a river in a remote location nearby.

Dr Margot Bolster, Locum Assistant State Pathologist attended the scene yesterday and post mortems will be carried out at Cork University Hospital.

The three brothers were well-known in the area.

They were known collectively locally as the 'The Saints'.

Local Councillor Frank O’ Flynn said that locals are struggling to come to terms with the tragedy.

“The people in the locality are shocked by this latest tragedy," he said.

“It’s hard to come to terms with. I feel very sad for the family and the people of the locality and our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this very sad time.”

Mary Fitzgerald, from Ballylanders said she knew them to see.

“They used to sell blocks of wood around our area. I hadn’t seen them really since Covid, but they were well-known. I think everyone would know them as local people.

“They were very nice, harmless. I don't know really what happened, it's shocking, they always seemed to have got on well. They were nearly always together, they seemed to get on great.”

A neighbour of the brother's farm, Brendan Doyle also noted the shock in the area following the tragedy. 

“I live out in the countryside, not too far from Killacluig church. My neighbour texted me early this morning, around 8am. I thought it was unusual to get an early text so I knew it was something wrong.

“I was shocked, people always say you wouldn’t expect it in your area but to me, we assumed it was someplace in the town. We weren’t thinking it would be so close by.”

Mr Doyle also acknowledged that this was not the first of this type of tragedy to happen in North Cork, referencing the suspected murder-suicide that occurred in Kanturk in October where Tadhg O’Sullivan and his son Diarmuid died close to their son Mark at the family farm.