Murder of Ashling Murphy
On 12 January 2022, Ashling Murphy, a 23‑year‑old Irish primary school teacher, traditional musician, and camogie player, was murdered while walking along the Grand Canal towpath near Tullamore, County Offaly. Her murder prompted widespread public grief and outrage, and tens of thousands attended vigils across Ireland and internationally. President Michael D. Higgins, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, and other government ministers attended her funeral.
On 18 January, police arrested Jozef Puška, a 31-year-old Slovak father of five who had moved to Ireland in 2013, and charged him with Murphy's murder the following day. Puška was convicted in November 2023 and sentenced to life imprisonment. In June 2025, Puška's wife, his two brothers, and their wives were convicted of withholding information or destroying evidence; they all received custodial sentences ranging from 20 to 30 months. Separately, Murphy's boyfriend brought a defamation action against the BBC over comments made in a current‑affairs broadcast; the case was settled out of court.
Murphy's legacy has been marked through scholarships, renamed camogie trophies, and a permanent memorial at the site of her death. Her family also established the Ashling Murphy Memorial Fund to support traditional Irish arts and culture for young people. Her murder accelerated legislative efforts aimed at improving women's safety.
Murder
Victim
Born on 6 July 1998, Ashling Murphy was the youngest of three children; she had an older brother and sister. She grew up near Blue Ball, County Offaly, around southwest of Tullamore. From 2011 to 2017, she studied at Sacred Heart School, a Catholic girls' secondary school in Tullamore. She then attended Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, graduating in October 2021 with 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, around 8 km northwest of Tullamore. She secured a full-time position at the school, beginning in September 2021, where she taught first-class pupils.Murphy's family all played traditional Irish music; her father had performed with The Fureys and with the band Best Foot Forward. Regarded as a talented fiddle player, Murphy performed around the country with the national orchestra of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, featured at traditional music festivals, and gave private music lessons at her family home. She played camogie for her local Kilcormac–Killoughey GAA club and represented Mary Immaculate College at collegiate level. She and her boyfriend Ryan Casey were in a relationship for over five years and had planned to marry.
Attack and death
At 2:30 pm on 12 January 2022, Murphy finished work at Scoil Naomh Colmcille in Durrow. She was captured on the school's CCTV at 2:37pm while walking to her car, a red SEAT Córdoba, in which she drove via the N52 to the Daingean Road car park in Tullamore, close to the Grand Canal. She left the car park on foot, wearing a navy jacket, navy leggings, a Kilcormac–Killoughey 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 2:51pm, heading eastward along the canal in the direction of Digby Bridge. She was last captured on CCTV at 2:55pm.File:Grand Canal on east side of Tullamore, Co. Offaly - geograph.org.uk - 3049212.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The Grand Canal in Tullamore, near where Murphy was killed.Geolocation data from Murphy's devices showed that she walked eastward as far as Digby Bridge, crossed the bridge at 3:16 pm, and then headed westward back towards the Daingean Road car park. The data showed her walking briskly at a consistent pace of around per hour until 3:21 pm, at which point her forward movement stopped and 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 11 times in the neck and also inflicted a single incision across her neck. He is believed to have used a serrated knife, although the murder weapon has never been found. Murphy's activity tracker recorded her heart rate decreasing rapidly until 3:27pm and ceased recording a heartbeat at 3:31pm.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 saw 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 to the man "What are you doing?” and he shouted "Get away." Believing that he 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, Stack and Marron encountered two cyclists and two Waterways Ireland workers. The cyclists rode to the location indicated by the women. One of the cyclists noticed the mountain bike in the hedge and discovered Murphy's motionless body on her back in the adjacent ditch, her face covered with matted hair and blood. The Waterways Ireland workers went to the scene on foot and also saw Murphy's body. One of the workers later testified that her hand was "snow white," which he took as an indication that she was dead.
Response by emergency services
The cyclist who discovered Murphy's body phoned Tullamore Garda Station at 3:34pm. Two Gardaí arrived at the scene ten minutes later. A Garda entered the ditch wearing disposable gloves, unzipped Murphy's jacket, and began performing CPR on her. He and his Garda colleague alternated performing CPR for over ten minutes, during which time a number of Garda detectives arrived. Two paramedics, Paul McCabe and a colleague, reached the scene at 3:56pm. The paramedics and Gardaí moved Murphy's body out of the ditch and onto the canal towpath, to facilitate attempts at resuscitation. McCabe later testified that he observed a substantial number of wounds on the right side of Murphy's neck as she was being moved.McCabe attempted to use a defibrillator after Murphy's body was placed on the towpath, but a monitor showed that she was in a "non-shockable rhythm" with "no signs of life." From his analysis of her conditionshe had no pulse, had pale and cold skin, and had dilated and fixed pupilsMcCabe concluded that Murphy was already dead. After a discussion with the other paramedic and the Gardaí, he ceased resuscitation efforts and covered her body with a blanket. The area was declared a crime scene at 5:34pm. Murphy's brother identified her body, and a doctor officially pronounced her dead at 5:51pm. Members of the Garda Technical Bureau arrived at 7:08pm.
Murphy's body was removed to the Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore, where state pathologist Dr. Sally Anne Collis carried out a postmortem examination the following day, January 13. Collis reported examining a 1.61 metre tall female, weighing 52.7 kilograms, who had sustained 11 stab wounds to the right side of her neck, which had severed her left and right jugular veins and her right carotid artery. The stab wounds had also damaged her voice box, leaving her unable to speak or make any intelligible sound. Collis additionally noted a longer incised wound across Murphy's neck. Although the media initially reported that Murphy died from strangulation, Collis confirmed that she died from cardio-respiratory arrest following acute blood loss. Collis noted that Murphy had suffered defensive injuries to her hands as well as additional abrasions and bruises to her body.
Public reactions
People across Ireland responded with shock and grief to the news of Murphy's murder. In Tullamore, thousands of mourners attended a vigil in a local park, many carrying flowers and candles. Numerous other vigils took place throughout the country, in locations including Dublin, Galway, Belfast, Limerick, Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny, Navan, Maynooth, Drogheda, Sligo, Ballina, Derry, Omagh, and Armagh. Murphy's family attended a candlelit vigil near the murder scene, where her father and his Best Foot Forward bandmates played her favourite song, "When You Were Sweet Sixteen." Vigils were also held internationally in cities including London, New York, Toronto, Vancouver, Melbourne, Brisbane, Dubai, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. Tens of thousands of people attended vigils throughout Ireland and abroad.The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, expressed his "profound sympathy and sorrow and sense of loss" at Murphy's death and paid tribute to her "short but brilliant and generous life." The Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said "the entire country is devastated and shocked by the violent and barbaric killing" and said the murder had "united the nation in solidarity and revulsion." Describing Murphy as "an inspiration", the principal of Scoil Naomh Colmcille said that the school community was "devastated and numb" at her killing.
Murphy's murder gave rise to widespread anger and outrage over women's safety. Women posted their experiences of gender-related violence and misogyny on social media following Murphy's death, leading to intense online debates. Calling the killing "every woman and family's worst nightmare", the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, promised a zero tolerance approach to violence against women. She pledged to introduce new laws to keep women safe and promised to increase state funding for women’s shelters. Murphy's death accelerated the implementation of a €363 million, five-year government strategy to address domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence.