A man suspected of killing two women and two young children at a house in Newcastle West  in Co. Limerick last Tuesday is undergoing treatment in hospital.

The 31-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday afternoon in a pub in the seaside town of Kilkee.

He was held in police custody up until yesterday, when questioning was suspended and he was transferred to Cork University Hospital. It is understood the suspect suffered an injury to his hand prior to being arrested, which required plastic surgery.

Irish police are investigating reports that the man took a knife from a house in Meadow Court that he had used to murder Sarah Hines (25), her two children, Reece (3) and five month old Amy and Alicia Brough (21), who was Ms Hines' friend.

The bodies of the four stab victims were discovered at Ms Hines' rented home at Hazelgrove, Newcastle West on Tuesday afternoon. It is understood Ms Hines had just moved into her house in Hazelgrove in recent weeks.

The police have yet to confirm whether the murder weapon was found during searches carried out at the scene on Wednesday.
Police are investigating the possibility that the suspect may have committed the multiple murders on Monday night and that the bodies of the victims were left in the house undetected overnight.

The State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy conducted a postmortem on the two women and two children yesterday. The results are expected in the coming days.

The stepfather of Sarah Hines has spoke out about the quadruple Limerick murders describing the news as “unbelievable”.

“We don’t know what’s true. We just know it’s all changed forever . . . It’s going to take a long time to sink in, it’s just unbelievable,” Sarah Hines’s stepfather,  Peter Rolfe told Limerick's Live95FM. .

Mr Rolfe said they family had last spoken to Sarah on Friday night when they called into visit her new home.

“She was fantastic, so full of life. She was’t the sort who would sit in front of the television or sit indoors. She loved being out and doing things. She was up for life. She didn’t have a bad bone in her body, she was brilliant,” he added.

Sarah and Alicia Brough had only become friends in recent weeks according to Mr Rolfe.