Double-murderer takes action over exclusion from family home
Kenneth Fox
A jealous double-murderer who killed his wife and a publican whom he suspected was her lover will challenge an 'unreasonable and irrational' decision by the Minister for Justice that he not be allowed within 18 kilometres of the village where he killed the man, barring him from living at his own home while on release.
Father-of-three Declan Power was convicted in 2003 at the Central Criminal Court after pleading guilty to murdering his wife, Joan Power (40) and publican Maurice 'Mossie' Curran (48), with whom he suspected his wife was having an affair.
Mr Curran was a successful publican who ran ‘The Decies Bar’ in Clashmore, Co Waterford.
Mrs Power had worked part-time at the bar.
Power (then 47), a self-employed mechanic, was sentenced to concurrent life sentences for the two March 2002 murders and has been on release, on strict conditions, since April 2021.
Power submits to the High Court that he was barred from living in his family home, where his daughter lives, because it falls within the 18km exclusion radius of Clashmore village where he murdered Mr Curran.
He was allowed within that 18km radius, limited to 6km from Clashmore village, for work purposes only, as Power works as a driver transporting vehicles to NCT centres in the region.
Power submits that his home at Bawnacomera, Ardmore, Co Waterford, is seven kilometres from Clashmore, that he built it, owns it and ran his mechanic business from a building adjoining his former home.
In November 2024, Power, now of High Street, Dungarvan, Co Waterford, took judicial review proceedings challenging the restrictions put on his movements while on release.
In April 2025, Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty granted the quashing of the "exclusion zone" determination and remitted the matter back to the Minister for "fresh consideration and determination".
A decision to uphold the restrictions was communicated by the Minister to Power in September 2025.
Power is seeking to quash the September 2025 decision from the Minister, which he submits is "null, void and invalid".
He submits the September 2025 determination is "grossly disproportionate" and contrary to law and fairness and an "interference" on his constitutional rights under "geographical and temporal" grounds.
He claims the “arbitrary limit” on the exclusion distance regarding Clashmore was imposed "unreasonably and irrationally", in circumstances where non-compliance would cause him to breach the terms of his conditional release that could see him returned to prison.
Power submits that he has no reason to travel to Clashmore, either on personal or professional grounds.
At the High Court this week, Ms Justice Sara Phelan, granted permission for Power to challenge the September 2025 determination by the Minister.
The Central Criminal Court heard in 2003 that Power murdered his wife at their Bawnacomera home by striking her with a rubber mallet and then stabbing her to death with a kitchen knife.
Power then went to Clashmore where he confronted Mr Curran outside his pub and shot him twice - in the chest and head - with a sawn-off shotgun Power had in his car.
Power discharged a third shot as Mr Curran tried to run away. Mr Curran collapsed and died on the roadside
A Garda Superintendent told the sentencing court that Power gave himself up to gardaí following the murders and had described himself to gardaí as “suspicious, jealous and possessive of his wife”.
