Almost a century after the family of nine-year-old Molly O'Neill was wiped out in a mysterious fire, the village whispers continue.

It was Christmas Eve, but there would be no festivities for little Molly 'Nails', who stood shivering in her nightgown as a raging inferno destroyed her home and left her an orphan.

Just a few hours earlier, the nine-year-old had a loving mother and seven sisters and brothers. Her father had died of pneumonia some months previously.

Now, her entire family had been wiped out in a matter of minutes by a blaze many suspected was started deliberately. The traumatised little girl listened to the shouts of neighbours struggling to contain the fire with buckets of water, the prayers of the local priest and the terrified farm animals trapped in the barn.

It was a night the Co Wexford village of Ballygarret would never forget -- and a fire whose cause would be the focus of suspicion and speculation for decades to come.

The blaze that destroyed the O'Neill farmhouse in December 1922 was the final blow for a family dogged by ill-fortune.

Earlier that year, Molly's toddler brother had died of pneumonia. Some months later, in May, her father James died from the same illness, leaving his 40-year-old wife Alice in charge of the struggling family farm and eight children aged between one and 10.

It was a devastating blow but, determined to keep going, Alice hired two men to work the farm. Times were hard and she found it difficult to pay them.

Then a good family friend, Jim Kehoe, stepped in. Jim, a wealthy farmer who lived about half a mile away, also owned a pub in the village.

He promised Alice he would provide whatever was necessary to keep the farm going, so Alice dismissed the two farm labourers.

'Jim Kehoe's help meant that Alice wouldn't have to worry about hiring and paying the farm labourers herself," says Pat Shine, producer of this documentary.

"Jim was a very good friend of her late husband and his wife was a very good friend of hers."

However, some disconcerting incidents occurred in the months that followed.

When the time came for the harvest, it was discovered that the meadows had been spiked -- pieces of metal had been driven into the ground so that the mowing machines would be damaged.

Later in the year, when the crops were almost ready, vegetables were uprooted and thrown near the house.

"This would have been very distressing for Alice -- it seemed to be a concerted campaign of intimidation towards her," says Pat.

However, Alice kept going.

"She is believed to have been a very strong and determined woman, a real survivor. She was the kind of person who was making the best of her situation. She was well liked and her husband had been highly respected in the area," says Pat.

With winter approaching, Alice threw herself into the preparations for Christmas. Then tragedy struck.

On December 23, Alice's sister, Brigid Morris dropped in to see the family, before returning to her own house across the road.

Normally, explains Pat, one of Alice's daughters would stay with her, so on December 23 it was Molly who walked across the road with her aunt. At about midnight, flames were seen by a man, Michael Hobbs, who was walking towards Ballygarrett.

He roused another local man, David Doyle. They rushed to the scene, but by the time they got to the farm the house was ablaze.

They woke Mrs Morris and Molly and warned them to evacuate their house as strong winds were blowing the flames across the road. Then, one of the men hurried to the village to raise the alarm.

However, the fire was already out of control and nobody could get into the house. When the fire eventually subsided, rescuers forced their way inside.

The bodies of Alice -- her baby in her arms -- along with her eldest daughter, also called Alice, and her son Henry were found in one bedroom. The bodies of the other four boys were in another.

The fire was so intense, the family's iron bedsteads were buckled and distorted from the heat.

Four days later, a Coroner's Court was held to determine whether the fire had been set maliciously and if it was worthy of a full police investigation.

The inquiry was held in the licensed premises of Tim Kehoe, Alice's old friend.

The jurors viewed the family's remains before calling the first witness, Brigid -- Alice's sister. She testified that she saw Alice carefully quench the fire before going to bed, adding that there were no lights in the children's rooms as she left with Molly.

She went to bed in her own house at about 10pm and was almost asleep when David Doyle shouted that Alice's house was on fire.

He said the roof had fallen in and the flames were so strong that he could not get into the house. He ran to Ballygarrett village to get help and the neighbours arrived soon after. They tried unsuccessfully to bring the blaze under control.

The jury heard that Alice's land had been spiked and that a vegetable garden had been damaged.

The Coroner's Court concluded that the fire had started in a hay rick about 18 feet from the house and, fanned by high winds, eventually spread to the farmhouse.

Eleven of the 17 jurors voted that the fire had been started maliciously, five felt that it had not been proven to be malicious and one abstained.

However, as the coroner required 12 votes to proceed with a criminal investigation, none took place, and the matter was officially dropped.

For years afterwards, however, whispers circulated around the village as to how the fire could have started.

Molly moved in with her aunt, and remained in the village. The family farmhouse was rebuilt and she moved into it after she married. She lived there happily with her husband and their children.

"There was a lot of talk in the village about who might have set the fire, but nobody would speak to the police," says Pat.

Molly, who died in her 80s in 1996, lived a full and happy life.

She refused to listen to gossip or finger-pointing, concentrating instead on rearing her children and, later, watching them become parents, and even grandparents.

She would only very occasionally talk about the tragic event that changed the course of her life. Following her death, her family erected a memorial to Molly's lost mother and siblings.

"From that one survivor of the fire, the family tree blossomed into a large extended network of children and grandchildren," says Pat.

"Molly told her daughter Maureen that there was often talk in the village about who could have set the fire. Molly knew who the suspects were, but insisted that there was never any proof.

"She said that if somebody had actually set fire to the hay rick they certainly didn't intend the house to burn. Molly believed that if somebody had done it, they would have had to live with the consequences all their lives.

"She felt it was a terrible burden to carry for anyone who had to live with it," he adds.

And, she felt, if the suspects were innocent, it would have been terribly wrong to point the finger without proof. But locals' suspicions never went away.

"There is a local story that when one of the suspects died, he was screaming about the fire and calling out Alice's name."

First broadcast: Saturday, February 19th, 2012 RTÉ Radio 1 at 6pm

An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One, the home of Irish radio documentaries.