A pensioner's body was found in her bedroom after a neighbour noticed that her curtains were "alive with bluebottles", inquest heard

Maureen O'Reilly (79) had been dead for up to two months before she was found at her home at College Drive, Terenure in south Dublin, on June 17 last year.

Dublin Coroner's Court heard from her niece Denise Church that she was a very private woman who did not like letting people into the house and maintained contact via letter.

The family would meet up with her every two to three months and on special occasions.

Ms O'Reilly suffered from diabetes.

Her neighbour Monica Dinan said that she remembered going into the house at some point in the two months prior to the discovery and Ms O'Reilly showed her her legs which were very swollen.

She advised her to go and see a doctor but she refused, she said.

The alarm was raised by another neighbour Vera Carroll who became concerned for Ms O'Reilly having not seen her since March.

She spoke to the dead woman's next door neighbour who told her that he could hear the radio in the house at night.

She said when she looked toward the bedroom window she could see that "the curtains were alive with bluebottles". She then called gardaí.

Garda Shay Kilbride said he could hear a loud television. The windows were all closed and he forced the front door open.

When he went upstairs he found the door of the front bedroom slightly ajar but when he tried to push it, it would not open.

Ms O'Reilly's body was slumped against the door and in a decomposed state, he said.

The post-mortem was carried out by former deputy state pathologist Dr Khalid Jaber, however, he was unable to give a cause of death due to the decomposition.

There were no injuries to suggest any trauma inflicted to the body, coroner Dr Brian Farrell said.

He returned an open verdict.

hnews@herald.ie