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The mother of five-year-old Mari Keane Connolly, killed following an arson attack last month, has spoken for the first time about her horrifying ordeal.
In an extraordinary interview, Teresa Keane tells of the unspeakable horror of losing her beautiful, happy daughter in such shocking circumstances.
And she reveals how the birth of her new twins may now be all that saves her from the abyss of grief and mourning.
Emotional extremes: Twins Aya, left, and Layla had just been been born when Mari died in the fire
Blessing: Teresa Keane cuddles her newborn babies, Ava and Layla
Heartbreakingly, Teresa was in hospital recovering after giving birth to twin girls Ava and Layla when Mari died.
And it was there, as she cradled the two newborn infants she had brought into the world, that she was given the devastating news that another of her children was gone.
'I had only seen little Mari hours earlier and we were all laughing together,' she told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
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ShareThat last contact came when her estranged partner, Richard Connolly – described as a hero by Teresa for his bravery in saving the two eldest girls – took Lauren, eight, Naomi, six, and Mari into Sligo General Hospital's maternity ward to see their new twin sisters.
Mari was so excited that Ava and Layla had finally arrived that she planned to tell her teacher and classmates all about them in school the next day.
An affectionate and loving child, Mari wanted to hold her baby sisters in hospital but Teresa told her they were too small and fragile.
'Richard arrived with the girls. I was delighted to see them all,' said Teresa.
'We were all laughing because Mari was sweaty and parched when she came in. Richard would have been walking 70 steps too fast for her.
'They all said goodbye and I told them that I would see them tomorrow.'
Innocent: Mari loved to be told she looked like Dora the Explorer
That night, the girls rang to say good night to their mother from Richard's house in Boyle, Co. Roscommon, 40km from Sligo.
'It was 9.48pm and that was the last I heard from her. Looking back now, she was the last one I spoke to on the phone.'
Hours later a nurse came running into Teresa hospital's bed following a frantic phone call.
'The nurse said, “Please, please Teresa, get up". It was Orla, Richard's sister, and she said, “There has been a house fire. Richard, Lauren and Naomi..."'
Teresa asked about Mari but Orla didn't answer.
'I dropped the phone and ran to wait for them all to arrive at the hospital.
'Richard arrived, then Lauren and Naomi. I waited and waited and rang everyone that I could think of. Deep down, I knew the child was gone.
'A friend of mine came down and she said Richard had done all that he could.
'I said, "Please tell me, I don't care if she has fallen or is hurt. She'll be grand".
'Mari hated the dark, absolutely hated it. And I said, “Go down and check – she's probably under a tree roaring crying. Go and get her."
'In truth, I knew before I was told,' said Teresa.
'But there was something in me that refused to believe it.'
Teresa rang her sister Christina and begged her to tell her what had happened. Instead, Christina put her onto a local garda from Boyle.
'All I heard him say was, “We're after finding remains".
'I threw the phone on the ground and Orla picked it up. I thought for a second that I had heard wrong.
'And even when the gardaí arrived at the hospital, I convinced myself that everyone was just panicking and she was fine.
'That morning just passed. I can only remember parts of it.'
Teresa cannot allow herself to think about anything but looking after her children. She describes the twins as a 'blessing' and insists that she has to keep busy to stop herself from falling apart.
'If I allow myself to think at night for even a second, I wouldn't be able to sleep at all.
Grief: Mari's little white coffin leaves St Joseph's Church in Boyle
'But it is so hard. Everything reminds me of Mari. It kills me to look at her picture.'
Teresa described Mari has a happy and placid child who never whinged, always looked after others and, above all else, loved Dora the Explorer.
'I turn on the TV and Dora is on,' she sobbed.
'I can't bear to look at the swing outside and even when I making dinner, I still find myself taking out a plate for Mari.
'She was only a five-year-old innocent baby. It shouldn't have been Mari.'
'She was such a good child.
'Mari loved school. She was so content and as easy pleased.
'Every evening she came home and went to sleep for an hour and in the morning, she'd be up at 6am waiting to go to school.
'She loved her teachers and her friends. We used to say that her teacher was like Honey from Matilda and Mari was like Matilda going in. Mari loved her.
'And she loved people telling her that she looked like Dora.'
As an infant, Mari suffered quite a lot from recurring chest infections. But Teresa said that never held her back.
'She'd take a spoonful of Calpol, have a little cough and go off. Nothing would stop her from going to school.'
Mari and her sister Naomi were in the same class in school and were excited about making their First Holy Communion together in two years' time.
They would eat together, play together and go to school together. They were inseparable.
Happy family: Richard Connolly, Teresa Keane their daughter Mari who was lost in a deliberate fire
'It's heart-breaking but Naomi keeps asking about Mari and is wondering now why she has to make her Communion alone.
'She doesn't really understand.'
Richard is still recovering in hospital following the fire.
He fell and damaged his back as he tried desperately to save his three children – though he braved the pain to attend Mari's funeral in a wheelchair. In the past week, he was moved from the Mater Hospital to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire.
Teresa is taking Lauren and Naomi to visit him in hospital today.
'Richard is a lot stronger than he looks,' said Teresa.
'He can move his legs up and down now. He has come on a lot in such a short space of time.
'His focus now is getting home to the children.
'He will recover. He might never be 100% but I guarantee you, he will walk up and down that street.'
It was two weeks ago today, that Richard woke up with the sound of loud banging.
He jumped out of bed and grabbed the door. He was blown back into the room with the force of the fire.
Without having time to think, he grabbed his precious girls and took them out onto the roof. But he fell and landed on his back... and a fearful Mari wouldn't jump.
'Friends told me it was like a scene from a disaster film,' said Teresa. 'Richard did everything he could. He is a hero and I want the country to know that.
Victim: Picture of Mari at the scene of a fatal house fire on Termon Road, Boyle
'Even when he was lying on the ground, barely able to move, he was trying to get back into the house.'
Teresa went to see the remains of the burnt-out house in Boyle last week. She said: 'It is a shell now. There is nothing left. Richard really did all that he could.
'His bones will heal but I don't know about his heart and his head.
'I know that he would happily switch places with Mari in the morning. But that is not going to happen and we have the girls to think about now.
'When he first came into the hospital, he kept asking about the girls.
'I told him that they had found Mari's remains in Termon [Road, Boyle – the address of Richard's house]. He refused to believe it. He kept saying, “No, I had her out".'
Teresa told how Mari was a sleepwalker and was hard to wake up when she was in a deep slumber.
'I keep praying that she was asleep when the fire got her.
'I know it was smoke that she died from. The gardaí told me that three breaths of that toxic smoke would have sent her to sleep.
'But I couldn't even go to identify Mari. It was never going to bring her back, I know that, but it would have been something to be near her one last time.
'The only thing that we had left to give her was the funeral. The whole town, country, was with us.
'I am getting letters from around the country from people I don't even know. Everyone has been so good.
'The gardaí have been brilliant. They worked around the clock for us. I can't thank them enough.'
John Lynch, 33, from Boyle, appeared in court last week charged with arson in connection with Mari's death.
Teresa said she and Richard had been destroyed by what happened to their little girl but added that they had to keep living for their other children.
'Now, all we can ask for is justice.'
And the proud mother, cradling her new twins, added: 'They are a blessing.
'And I have to go on for them and for my other three children, Lauren, Naomi and Ashley.
'I don't know what I would do without them all.'
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