THE man who murdered Ennis man Eoin Boylan four years ago in a knife attack has a history of domestic violence and held a knife up to his ex-wife “a good few times”, an inquest has heard.
At the inquest in Kilrush into the death of Eoin Boylan (32), of Clancy Park, Ennis, Susan Ahmed (née O’Doherty), originally from Limerick, told the court that she obtained a barring order in the past against her ex-husband, Nassar Ahmed.
In June 2022 at the Central Criminal Court, Nassar Ahmed, originally from Sudan, was convicted of the murder of Eoin Boylan at Gordon Drive, Cloughleigh, Ennis, on April 14, 2020.
Ms Ahmed told the inquest that Nassar Ahmed (42), formerly of The Mews, Kilrush Road, Ennis, “put a knife up to me a good few times.”
Ms Ahmed said that, in a row with a neighbour in 2018, “Nassar went down to the house and I saw him put a long knife down his trousers before he went”.
It was heard at the Clare Coroner’s inquest that at around 3pm on April 14, 2020, Mr Ahmed had a concealed knife before making three lunges at Mr Boylan, who pleaded with Mr Ahmed to stop.
Catherine Martin, Mr Boylan’s mother, told the inquest that her son had asked her at the scene: “He stabbed me mum. Why did he stab me? Why did he stab me?”
Ms Martin said that Nassar Ahmed had called his ex-wife “a whore” in the fracas, with the three young Ahmed children in the back garden of the home pleading with their father to stop.
It was heard that Eoin Boylan had been in a relationship with Susan Ahmed.
In her own deposition, Ms Ahmed, who provided support to Ms Martin at the inquest, said that despite Eoin Boylan asking Nassar Ahmed to stop, he continued to hit him.
Nassar Ahmed presented himself at Ennis Garda Station after the incident.
Ms Martin comforted her son at the scene before first responders removed him to an ambulance. She told the inquest: “I got the strangest feeling before he went into the ambulance that he wouldn’t be coming back.”
Mr Boylan went into cardiac arrest in the stationary ambulance and was pronounced dead at 4.35pm.
Ms Ahmed said that when she first introduced her ex-husband to her new partner, Mr Boylan, “he shook Eoin’s hands and said ‘once you are happy, it doesn’t matter’”.
Ms Ahmed told the court that her former husband had been abusive towards her, saying that he “used to hit me”.
Referencing a time while living in Cork with Mr Ahmed earlier in their relationship, she said that “I had no one around and it was weeks before I would meet any of my family and if I had any marks, they would be gone before anyone would see them.”
A jury found at the inquest that Mr Boylan died as a result of murder.
