Emer Terrace is a long row of red brick terraced houses on the road to Dundalk from the M1 motorway. The terrace was built over 100 years ago and has seen better days. Many houses are empty, and four in a row are for sale.
The house has a Garda No Entry sign in the middle of the terrace, the only evidence of its activity on the street in recent days. This is where the family of the missing eight-year-old boy Kyran Durnin lived until May this year. Gardaí entered the house on Monday, moved out the previous occupants (who are unrelated to the investigation) and began searching the house and the small rear garden and patio.
They appeared to have completed their search as the house was empty and there were no Garda officers at the door or outside on Thursday morning.
On August 30, Kyran and his mother Dayla Durnin (24) were reported missing from their rented house in Drogheda. The investigation into Ms Durnin’s disappearance has been closed, but the search for Kyran has been upgraded to a murder investigation as gardaí work to assume Kyran is dead.
Former neighbors of Ms Durnin and her son said they never knew her or her family.
“I didn’t even know what this woman looked like. She was there for three years and I never saw her. It’s terrible what’s happening here,” said Marian Kiernan, who lives a few houses away.
She was the only one on the terrace willing to give their name and surname. Another neighbor said Emer Terrace is currently mostly rented and has a transient population. She didn’t recognize the photo of Kyran or his mother, who is believed to be currently in the UK.
“You might have tenants who will be there for a few months and then move on. Most of the permanent residents of this area would be very old,” she said.
( Kyran Durnin timeline: Eight-year-old reported missing a day after Tusla contacted gardaíOpens in a new window )
The house in Emer Terrace is located across the street from the St Vincent de Paul store. One employee said she recognized Kyran’s mother when she entered the store with her two daughters, but never saw her with the boy, who is now missing.
“She came here for about a year. It’s surreal. It’s like something out of a TV show,” the employee said. She wondered, like many people, how the child could allegedly disappear for two years without authorities noticing.
Garda operations have now moved to a shared private garden at the rear of Emer Terrace in Father Murray Park, a development of bungalows built in the 1940s.
The excavation site is located between two adjacent bungalows on the corner. On Thursday afternoon, officers were moving in and out of the scene.
At one point the police arrived to bring a chainsaw. A few minutes later, the sound of cutting branches could be heard from the private garden.
A young couple living in one of the neighboring bungalows said they did not know Kyran Durnin’s family. “I don’t want to comment on this case because I don’t have enough knowledge about it,” the man said.
At the other house, the resident, an elderly woman, stated that there was “a lot going on” but declined to comment further on what was happening.