Dan Keane lifted his pen and said, ‘Good afternoon to you, too, DS Maguire. I’m interested to note that you said “set alight” rather than “caught alight” and that you used the word “incident” instead of “accident”. Does this mean that Justice Quinn’s car didn’t catch fire because of a traffic collision or a mechanical failure or something of that kind?’

‘We’re still investigating how the fire started, Dan. I’m expecting reports from our forensic experts and from Cumann Imscrúdaitheorí Dóitéan within the next few days. Of course we’ll let you know as soon as we can confirm exactly what happened. For the time being, though, I’m simply being cautious and trying not to give you any statements that might be misleading.’

‘Was any other car involved in this incident? Or lorry? Or bus? Or bicycle? Or combine harvester? Did he crash into a tree, or a telegraph pole?’

‘As far as we can tell at the moment, there was no collision with any other vehicle and he didn’t hit a tree or any other roadside object.’

‘Was any other person injured?’

‘No.’

‘What about witnesses?’

‘Only one so far, Dan, a local farmer, but he only saw Justice Quinn’s car when it was already on fire. He didn’t see what the cause of it was.’

‘What was the nature of Justice Quinn’s injuries?’ asked the reporter from the Irish Sun.

Katie said, ‘I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten your name.’

‘Owen. Owen Dineen. You might remember I covered that story about those cops in Cork who were taking a slice from the profits of five different brothels.’

‘Yes, Owen. I remember the story well. And you – by sight anyway. As for the nature of Justice Quinn’s injuries, he was fierce badly burned, as you can probably imagine. Whether his burns were the primary cause of his death, we have yet to determine. His remains have been sent to CUH for a full post-mortem by the assistant state pathologist.’

‘He was due to pass sentence on Donal Hagerty today, was he not? Is there any indication that his death might in any way be connected to that?’

‘No. Not that I’m currently aware of.’

‘But Donal Hagerty’s younger brother Billy was shot and killed this afternoon, was he not?’

‘That’s correct. I was about to get to that. Billy Hagerty was shot outside The Weavers pub in Blackpool this afternoon and died instantly.’

‘Any idea at all who was responsible?’

‘There were several witnesses to the shooting but so far we haven’t been able to identify any suspects and no arrests have been made. All we have so far is that the shots were fired from the back seat of a bronze Honda saloon.’

‘I’m told that one of the witnesses was Thomas O’Flynn, am I right?’

‘You are, yes.’