Kelly O’Brien spent ten years not being believed. She always maintained that the fire that killed her husband and five-year-old daughter in 2012 was a deliberate, criminal act. Gardaí insisted the fire was an accident, and closed the file on the case in 2013 after no evidence of a crime was found.
Then in 2022, Philip Griffin made a confession. He said that he and another man entered the O’Brien house in Tralee, Co Kerry, and that he saw the other man set fire to a couch.
In her first television interview, Ms O'Brien speaks to Prime Time, as a fresh Garda investigation to bring the other individual to justice continues.
"I remember waking up to this smell. It was so strong. It was like the smell of a car taking off fast, the smell of burning rubber," Kelly said.
The horrific events in Kelly's home at Killeen Heights in Tralee in the early hours of 12 May 2012 are seared in her memory.
Kelly was in bed in a back bedroom of the house with her husband Anthony and five-year-old-daughter Nadine, who had climbed into bed with them, as she often did.
Trying not to wake Nadine, Kelly managed to wake Anthony, who opened the bedroom door to see thick, black smoke.
"When Anthony arrived back into the room I remember he just said 'Kelly we’re trapped', and I said 'what do you mean?' and he said 'the house is on fire'."
During her interview with Prime Time, Kelly holds a necklace in her hands. It contains a photo of Anthony and Nadine.
"I carry them with me all the time," she said. "The strength I saw from Anthony that night, and even Nadine, she was five, she fought, she did, she fought to try and be here. The only comfort I have is that Anthony had her in his arms, she didn’t die alone."
When fire crews gained access to the house in the early hours of that morning, they found Anthony and Nadine together in the back bedroom beneath the window. Nadine was cuddled into her father.
Anthony saved his wife’s life. In those moments when the smoke was filling their bedroom, they had realised that the only way to escape was through the bedroom window. But for some time, as they battled to breathe, they couldn't open the window.
"Anthony just grabbed Nadine and myself and he put us down on the floor. The room filled up so fast that I couldn’t see. We could no longer see each other at all," Kelly said.
In those seconds Kelly thought they would all die.
"I can’t explain with the right words how it feels, knowing you’re dying, wondering how long it’s going to take, is it going to hurt? Is it true? Will I be with Nadine, will I be with Anthony? So much goes through your head."
Anthony managed to get the window open and helped Kelly out, the intention being that she would then catch Nadine.
"Nadine was on the windowsill on the inside, I was outside, I was on my belly. Anthony had my hand, I was going to try and hang down...Anthony’s hand was released from mine."
Kelly fell from the windowsill of the upstairs window. Still battling to get oxygen back into her lungs, and after breaking her leg in the fall, Kelly struggled to a sitting position in her back garden and looked up to the window for Nadine.
"I was screaming for help, I was screaming 'help Anthony, help Anthony'. The plan was I was to catch Nadine. So I was just sitting there with my hands open, screaming for help and waiting for Nadine. But I got a bad feeling, I knew something was wrong."
She waited, looking up at the bedroom window, but Anthony and Nadine didn't appear. Eventually Kelly managed to crawl out to the road and stop a motorist to raise the alarm.
"I tried to run but my legs wouldn’t work, they kept just, you know, just flopping. I couldn't feel them. I crawled around the side of the house. The smoke, oh my God, it was flying out the living room window," she said.
"A car was coming and saw me and stopped, I remember just saying 'Anthony, Nadine, back room'. I was so scared of losing consciousness."
Investigation
An initial garda investigation began immediately into the cause of the fatal fire, and a number of people were arrested.
However, no charges followed. Gardaí insisted the fatal fire was an accident, and closed the file on the case after no evidence of a crime was found.
Eighteen months after the fire, the inquests into the deaths of Anthony and Nadine were held in Tralee. The medical cause of death was given as "acute carbon monoxide poisoning due to smoke inhalation due to a house fire."
However, no reason for the fire was given.
For ten years, Kelly lived without an explanation for the death of her husband and child.
"They [gardaí] couldn’t tell me what the 'accident' was. I asked them: 'How did the living room accidentally go up on fire?'"
Kelly never waivered from her belief, but that decade was extremely difficult. She was often told she was not properly dealing with her grief, that she was seeking someone to blame, that she needed help.
"I was put in and out of psychiatric [care]. I attempted to take my life several times. I was in there because I was told that I wasn't accepting the fact my husband and daughter were deceased," she told Prime Time.
"I was explaining 'no, I know they’re deceased, it’s the reason why they’re deceased that I have a problem with'," she said.
Confession
In 2022, Philip Griffin came forward and confessed his part in the crime to gardaí.
Griffin - a man with 41 previous convictions - and originally from Tralee, but then of 'no fixed abode' told gardaí how he and another man had broken into the O’Brien home through a downstairs window.
Griffin said he did not set the fire but watched as the other man ripped open the couch, took out a lighter and set fire to it. The two men then left through the window, leaving a raging fire and a family asleep upstairs.
It is only because of Griffin's confession that the cause of the fire is known. Griffin pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was jailed for six and a half years.
The court also heard that the crime occurred because of a dispute over €50 worth of drugs.
Following Griffin’s confession, a fresh garda investigation was launched to bring to justice the other person involved in the crime.
Kelly O’Brien continues to keep pressure on those with information to bring it forward.
She is urging people to "do the right thing."
She has had many conversations in Tralee with people who now recognise she was right all along.
Kelly now has a one-year-old boy, Ryan, with her partner who she met in 2022, some months after learning that a man had confessed to being involved in setting the fire.
Her three older children are now young adults, and one is due a child later this month.
Kelly brings her partner and young son to the cemetery to visit Nadine and Anthony’s grave. The two were buried together in the same coffin, as they died in each other's arms.
Anyone with information about the deaths of Anthony and Nadine O’Brien should contact the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111
If you have been affected by the issues raised in this story you can speak to someone by contacting one of the numbers at rte.ie/helplines.
The full interview with Kelly O’Brien with reporter Barry Cummins and producer Sallyanne Godson will broadcast on the 11 March edition of Prime Time on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
