This article first appeared on Galway Bay FM

One of the victims of a fatal house fire near Casla in Connemara this morning has been named as Sonia ‘Sunny’ Jacobs.

Ms Jacobs spent many years on death row in the US before being acquitted.

Emergency services responded to a call of a house fire at Glenicmurrin at around 6.20am this morning

Although they quickly got the fire under control, it claimed the lives of both occupants of the home.

One of them has now been named as Sonia ‘Sunny’ Jacobs, who was aged in her mid 70s.

The other victim, a man in his 30’s, hasn’t been publicly named.

Sunny was well-known in Connemara, where she spent many years with her late husband Peter Pringle.

Almost 50 years ago, in 1976, she was sentenced to death for the murder of two police men in the state of Florida.

In 1993, she was acquitted, and in 1998, she met her late husband Peter in Galway after travelling to speak at an Amnesty International Event.

Peter had spent many years in prison for the murder of two Gardaí in 1980, but his conviction was later quashed.

Together, they established the Sunny Centre in Connemara to help other death row survivors, and those who’ve been wrongfully convicted.