{"id":655025,"date":"2026-10-15T01:28:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T01:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/655025\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T01:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T01:28:23","slug":"waterford-familys-deaths-in-fire-due-to-a-e20k-drug-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/655025\/","title":{"rendered":"Waterford family’s deaths in fire ‘due to a \u20ac20k drug debt\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

John James English, one of 10 children from Philip English\u2019s first marriage, made the claim as a vigil<\/a> was held for his father, Philip\u2019s wife Kim, and two of their children, 12-year-old Callum and nine-year-old Jayden.<\/p>\n

They all died when their home in the Birchwood Estate was firebombed in the early hours of Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

Two other children Nadia, 14, and Elliot, six, remain in critical condition in Crumlin Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed<\/a> involved in the murder investigation suspect that a gang led by two brothers from another part of the city were behind the attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Homes linked to them were among those searched on Tuesday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The pair are regarded as notorious for drug-related intimidation.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed said the investigation is \u201cintense in nature and very active\u201d and a number of electronic devices and vehicles seized during the searches on Tuesday night are now the subject of technical examination.<\/p>\n

John James English confirmed the size of the debt and said it had been racked up by someone else.<\/p>\n

He said Tuesday\u2019s arson attack was \u201cnot done for a pack of pop corn, \u20ac50, or name-calling\u201d.<\/p>\n

He questioned whether \u20ac20,000 was \u201cworth four lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

Parish priest and bishop lead vigil for family<\/p>\n

Mr English\u2019s claims came as a prayer vigil was held at the Sacred Heart Church<\/a>, The Folly, in Waterford City for the family.<\/p>\n

\"ParishParish Priest Fr Gerry Chestnutt speaking at the scene of the fire that claimed four lives in the Birchwood estate in Waterford City on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he and Bishop Phonsie Cullinan led a prayer vigil for the family. Picture: M\u00edche\u00e1l \u00d3 Scann\u00e1il\/PA<\/p>\n

At the vigil, parish priest Fr Gerry Chestnutt urged those responsible to \u201chave the courage to stand up and face the consequences\u201d for what they did.<\/p>\n

He also urged anybody who knows anything about what happened to contact garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n

John James English told RT\u00c9 that other members of the family, including his own mother, Ann, were innocent but had previously been terrorised by criminals.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, Ann was among members of the family at a balloon release close to the firebombed house.<\/p>\n

She urged anyone with information to come forward.<\/p>\n

‘Whoever done it should hand themselves in’<\/p>\n

James English, who was also Callum\u2019s godfather, said: \u201cThey should be ashamed of themselves. Whoever done it should hand themselves in.\u201d<\/p>\n

A GoFundMe page set up for the family to help towards funeral expenses surpassed its original target of \u20ac24,000 and has now been raised to \u20ac50,000.<\/p>\n

Of that new target, some \u20ac41,219 had been raised from more than 1,500 donations by 7pm on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Organiser Shannon Brazil set it up for Philip\u2019s sister, Jackie English, after \u201can unimaginable tragedy that has devastated our family\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThere are no words to describe the heartbreak of losing four precious lives in such devastating circumstances.<\/p>\n

\n As our family tries to come to terms with this heartbreaking loss, we are faced with the task of arranging four funerals.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cTragically, two other siblings are also currently in hospital in critical condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur family is enduring an incredibly difficult time, holding on to hope for those still fighting while trying to process the devastating loss of our loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taoiseach: Full resources behind garda\u00ed<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> said the Government will put in place all resources needed for the Garda investigation, and for community supports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is extremely shocking in terms of the level of violence and the consequences of an entire family to be impacted in this manner, and I think we, as a Government, will ensure that the full resources are behind An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also a period we have to really examine and reflect on this phenomenon of arson attacks on innocent people, and with absolutely no consideration for human life and for the impact of such actions, and I know the minister for justice and others will be working extremely hard to stamp this out and to deal very resolutely and robustly with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neil Michael, News Reporter
\n Cormac O\u2019Keeffe, Security Correspondent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John James English, one of 10 children from Philip English\u2019s first marriage, made the claim as a vigil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11246,27510,59150,191786,45,4888,42,1843,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-655025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-childrens-health","tag-drugs-crisis","tag-gangland-crime","tag-waterford-news","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-family","tag-headlines","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}