Couple who died in tragic Mayo house fire were Roscommon natives

A couple who died tragically in a house fire in Swinford yesterday morning, Tuesday, were natives of Roscommon, it has emerged.

Tom and Eileen Mahon, both aged in their 60s, ran Mahon's Furniture and Flooring in Swinford for many years, and were well-known within the community. They are survived by their two adult children.

Eileen (née Cooper) hailed from Castlerea from a well-known family while Tom’s father ran a VG food store in Ballaghaderreen in the seventies and eighties.

Emergency services were alerted to the fire at their two storey home at Deerpark, on the outskirts of Swinford, at around 2 a.m. yesterday morning.

Both were pronounced dead at the scene before their bodies were removed in the early afternoon to Mayo University Hospital in Castlebar for postmortem examinations.

Gardaí have sealed off the scene as a forensic examination of fire-damaged property is carried out.

The east Mayo town of Swinford and local communities in Roscommon have been rocked and saddened by the deaths of the popular couple.