“She was just standing there talking … and he just walked right in and stabbed her,” a female witness said.
Sarah McNally (41), originally from Longford, died from her injuries after she was attacked while working in an Irish bar in Queens over the weekend.
According to reports, Ms McNally’s partner is suspected of stabbing her inside the doors of The Ceili House pub on Grand Avenue in Maspeth, Queens, on Saturday evening at around 6.30pm.
The Longford native died from stab wounds to her neck, while her attacker suffered injuries to his neck and body.
According to the New York Post, the woman’s partner — with whom she’d been living for several months — randomly turned up at her place of work and stabbed her before turning the knife on himself.
“She was just standing there talking … and he just walked right in and stabbed her,” a female witness told the publication.
“Then he started trying to stab himself. Horrible. Just horrible!”
It is reported that the attacker was carrying knifes in both hands and when he didn’t comply with demands by police to drop the weapons, he was then tasered.
The attacker is in custody after he was taken to a New York hospital to be treated for his injuries.
Charges are pending, according to reports.
Ms McNally originally hailed from Longford town before emigrating to the US a number of years ago.
It is understood she has been resident in New York for much of that time and had been working in the local hospitality sector.
It’s understood that Ms McNally’s mother flew out to New York on Sunday as police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding her killing.
Tributes to Sarah McNally
“I cannot imagine a worse call for a parent to get,” Fianna Fail TD Joe Flaherty told RTE.
“It’s truly traumatic, and I understand her heartbroken mother is flying out to be with Sarah this morning, and that’s a journey that no parent wants to have to undertake.”
Tributes to Ms McNally from family and friends continued to pour in online over the weekend.
“Rest in peace my beautiful niece Sarah, we are heartbroken, love you always,” Ms McNallys’s aunt Mary wrote in a tribute posted to social media.
Another of Ms McNally’s aunts Margaret Gaffey added: “My beautiful niece taken too soon. Love you.”
A former member of St Mels Musical Society, which Ms McNally was a part of, said: “We are all deeply shocked and saddened over the tragic and untimely death of Sarah McNally.”
“Deepest sympathy to her parents Dorothy and Dessie and to all of her extended family. May she rest in peace.”
Local Cllr Seamus Butler said details surrounding the tragedy had left the local community of Longford town in a state of numbed disbelief.
The Ceili House pub
“She was Longford born and she was a former pupil of Scoil Mhuire in Longford where my wife actually taught her,” he said.
Councillor Martin Monaghan told RTE that the death of Sarah McNally in New York has left the town of Longford in a “state of shock”.
“As family, friends and neighbours attempt to come to terms with the loss of such a young life. Sarah would have been 41 years of age and moved to New York 10 years ago,” he said.
He told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that she would have been “an integral part of Longford life” before that, having worked in bars in the town.
“Her mother and her father would be Longford-based in a small tight-knit community here in Longford.
“The O’Connor’s and McNally’s would be really decent Longford people.
“It comes as a huge shock to the family to get this news over a Bank Holiday weekend,” he said.
