Ashling Murphy

Ashling Murphy (6 July 1998 – 12 January 2022) was an Irish primary school teacher, traditional Irish musician, and camogie player who was murdered in January 2022 while walking on the towpath of the Grand Canal at Cappincur, outside Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland.

Her killing received extensive media coverage, and tens of thousands of people attended vigils in her memory.

The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, expressed his "profound sympathy and sorrow and sense of loss" at her death, while the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said the murder had "united the nation in solidarity and revulsion."

The President, Taoiseach, and other Irish government ministers attended Murphy's funeral in Mountbolus, County Offaly, on 18 January.

In the days following Murphy's death, the Gardaí (Irish police) questioned 31-year-old Slovak Romani father-of-five Jozef Puška, who was subsequently arrested and charged with her murder.

On 9 November 2023, following a three-week trial at Dublin's Central Criminal Court, a jury found Puška guilty by unanimous verdict.

The jury heard that he had stabbed Murphy multiple times in the neck, causing her to die from cardio-respiratory arrest following acute blood loss.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

His wife, two of his brothers, and their wives—all Slovakian nationals in their 30s—face charges of withholding information relating to the murder investigation or with impeding an arrest; all five will be tried at the Central Criminal Court in 2025.

Murphy's murder gave rise to widespread public outrage over violence against women in Irish society.

Following her death, the government pledged to afford greater legal protections to women and accelerated the implementation of a five-year strategy to address gender-related violence.

Murphy is remembered through the Ashling Murphy Memorial Fund, a registered charity established by her family to support the traditional Irish arts, culture, and heritage for young people; through scholarships established in her name by Mary Immaculate College, the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, and Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann; and through camogie championship cups named in her memory.

A permanent memorial to Murphy has been constructed on the banks of the Grand Canal at the site of her murder.

Born on 6 July 1998 in Blue Ball near Tullamore, County Offaly, Ashling Murphy was the youngest child of Raymond and Kathleen Murphy; she had two siblings, a brother Cathal and a sister Amy.

From 2011 to 2017, she studied at Sacred Heart School, a girls' Catholic secondary school in Tullamore.

She then attended Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, where she pursued a Bachelor of Education degree in Primary Teaching.

In March 2021, she began working as a substitute teacher at Scoil Naomh Colmcille, a primary school in Durrow, County Offaly.

She secured a full-time position at the school, beginning in September 2021, where she taught first-class pupils.

She graduated from Mary Immaculate College on 22 October 2021.

Murphy came from a musical family; her parents and siblings all played traditional Irish music, and her father had performed with The Fureys and with the band Best Foot Forward.

Murphy herself had played the fiddle and tin whistle since childhood, had begun learning the uilleann pipes, and had performed around the country with the national orchestra of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann.

Regarded as an exceptionally talented fiddle player, she had also featured at traditional music festivals.

She played camogie for her local Kilcormac–Killoughey GAA club and had represented Mary Immaculate College at collegiate level.

She and her boyfriend Ryan Casey had been in a relationship for over five years and had planned to marry.

On 12 January 2022, the day of the murder, Murphy finished work at Scoil Naomh Colmcille, Durrow—approximately 8 km northwest of Tullamore—at 2:30p.m. She was captured on CCTV walking to her car, a red SEAT Córdoba, in which she departed the school grounds at 2:37p.m. and drove via the N52 to the Daingean Road car park, close to the canal bank.

She left the car park on foot, wearing a navy jacket, navy leggings, a GAA camogie top, a white T-shirt, a gray scarf, blue Nike runners, and a pink woolen hat with a brown bobble.

She also wore a ring, sunglasses, a gold necklace bearing the name "Ashling", and a Fitbit Versa 3 smartwatch with an activity tracker linked to her smartphone.

Geolocation and activity data retrieved from her devices showed that she began walking at 2:51p.m., headed westward over a bridge, and then continued eastward along the canal, in the direction of Digby Bridge.

She was last captured on CCTV at 2:55p.m. Data from Murphy's devices showed that she crossed Digby Bridge at 3:16p.m., having walked around 3 km, and then headed westward back towards the Daingean Road car park.

At 3:21 p.m., her activity tracker began recording erratic fluctuations consistent with a violent attack.

Her attacker is believed to have overpowered her and dragged her off the towpath into an adjacent steep ditch filled with briars, where he stabbed her repeatedly in the neck with a serrated knife.

The activity tracker recorded her heart rate decreasing rapidly until 3:27p.m. and ceased recording a heartbeat at 3:31p.m.

Two joggers, Jenna Stack and Aoife Marron, also primary school teachers, witnessed the attack.

They later testified that they noticed a mountain bike in a hedge alongside the towpath and heard loud rustling sounds in the ditch beneath.

Believing that someone may have fallen off the bike, Marron shouted: "Are you okay? Do you need help?"

Stack stepped off the towpath, looked through the hedge into the ditch, and observed a man crouching over a woman and holding her down in the undergrowth.

Stack stated that she could not see the woman's upper body, but observed her legs kicking vigorously in a scissors-like motion, which she interpreted as a "cry for help".

Stack called out "What are you doing?” and the man shouted "Get away." Believing that the man was attempting to rape the woman, Stack shouted at him to "Get off her" and said she was calling the Gardaí. Stack and Marron then ran for help, as neither was carrying a phone.

At Digby Bridge, the women encountered a cyclist and two Waterways Ireland workers.

The cyclist, local man Enda Molloy, rode to the scene of the attack described by the women.