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.

Jozef Puška, a 31-year-old Slovak Romani who had moved to Ireland in 2013, was convicted of Murphy's murder in November 2023 and sentenced to life imprisonment. In June 2025, his 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.

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 10 km (6.2 mi) 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 (5.0 mi) 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.

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 2:37 pm 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 2:51 pm, heading eastward along the canal in the direction of Digby Bridge. She was last captured on CCTV at 2:55 pm.

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 6.5 km (4.0 mi) 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 3:27 pm and ceased recording a heartbeat at 3:31 pm.

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.