A 49-year-old woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of her two children in a car fire in Co Westmeath last year.
In a barely audible whisper, Lynn Eagar, of Winetown, Rathowen, Co Westmeath, pleaded guilty to the murders of five-year-old Thelma Dennany, and her two-year-old brother Michael.
Eagar set fire to the car in which the two children were sitting at Lackan, Multyfarnham on 9 September last year.
The Central Criminal Court heard that the children's mother was in the passenger seat and was pulled to safety by a passer-by and suffered only "minimal burns".
Michael Dennany, the father of both children, wrote a statement for the court that was read by Detective Inspector Thomas Quinn.
Mr Dennany said that the births of his two children were the happiest days of his life.
Holding Thelma for the fist time, he said, was the "most terrifying" moment, but he was the "happiest man alive".
"When Mikey arrived two-and-a-half years later, Thelma became the best big sister ever, she wanted to do everything for him.
"From the moment they met they were stuck together like glue: Fearless, mischievous partners in crime."
The day that they died, Mr Dennany had planned to collect chestnuts with his children after school.
"We never got to do that," he said.
"Their daddy should have been there to protect them. When they needed me the most, I was useless.
"When I left them that morning they were asleep, I didn't get a chance to say goodbye ... I used to come home to a busy home full of noise and toys and love.
"The toys are still there but not the noise or the love ... Just heartache and despair."
He said he had hoped to see his children through school and "at a push to see them married".
"I never thought I would bury them ... The only comfort I have is that they are together forever."
Eager 'full of regret'
Eager also wrote a letter that was read out by her barrister Sean Gillane SC.
She apologised to everyone she had hurt, for the "pain, horror and suffering" she had caused to her family and to her two "gorgeous children".
"Looking back, there were other avenues I could and should have travelled," she wrote. "I'm full of regret."
At the end of the hearing, Mr Justice Paul McDermott imposed a life sentence for each of the two murders.
"I can only express my commiserations to everyone concerned and to all who loved and cherished Thelma and Mikey," he said.
