"No".

"Yes, it got out of hand and yes, I wish she had let me call someone, " she told the Sunday Tribune at the end of a week in which she became a household name and a byword for neglect. A series of investigations will determine whether that reputation is warranted, but for the moment, Eleanor is determined to defend her name.

"She was so stubborn, so pigheaded, so strong, " she said.

"She wouldn't let me and I couldn't bring myself to go against her wishes. I called the ambulance in the end and when I told her this, she said 'no'. That was the last thing she ever said to me. That's what I'm left with."

Last week, Evelyn's siblings spoke of their devastation at the circumstances in which their estranged sister died, while her ex-husband and son said if they had known what was happening, they would have got her appropriate care.

But on Friday, her daughter, who is pregnant with her third child, insisted she had cared for her mother as best she could without any help from the state.

"I did everything I could and I did it all on my own. I didn't get a carer's allowance or anything, " she told theSunday Tribune, describing how her mother had stopped eating and refused to talk to her in the last few weeks of her life. "No matter what I gave her she wouldn't eat. She kept taking off her nappies and I kept putting them back on. That's how the ambulance man found her in that state."

Speaking out because she was "fed up listening to all the lies" in the media, Eleanor said she was angry at how the local community has turned against her. "I have been made to feel like a criminal and I did nothing wrong, " she said.

Eleanor and her partner John Costan gave an interview to gardai on Thursday and are continuing to help them with their enquiries since an investigation into Evelyn's death was launched last week. The Health Service Executive (HSE) also launched a separate inquiry to investigate the services provided to the woman in the last two years.

Evelyn Joel was "a lovely lady" from a large family who made numerous friends.

Those who knew her have expressed their shock and disbelief at how she spent the last few months of her life in a bedroom in Cluain Dara. The town of Enniscorthy is reeling at the fact that this could have happened to one of their own, a well-known and well-liked neighbour and friend.

Evelyn Joel, born Evelyn Connolly, was part of a large family, with three brothers and four sisters. In her 20s she married her first cousin, Billy Joel, and had two children, Eleanor, 31, and Liam, 33. The couple were married for 22 years but, in 1991, Evelyn left the family home and went to live with her brother-in-law Alfie, Billy's brother.

They split in October 2004, when Alfie developed lung cancer and couldn't continue to care for Evelyn, who was confined to a wheelchair from multiple sclerosis. She then went to live with Eleanor and her partner John Costan, 34, and grandchildren Matthew, aged five, and Jessica, aged two.

There she spent the last 14 months of her life, not leaving her room from September 2005. Her neighbours said they never knew she was there; her old friends lost contact; the local priest was reportedly asked not to visit any more.

Billy Joel, who hadn't spoken to his estranged wife in 14 years, talked last week about his regret that he didn't know the circumstances of her death until he turned on the radio on Wednesday.

"She should have been somewhere she could have been looked after, " he said.

"There are a lot of questions to be answered about why."

Evelyn's son, Liam, who hadn't spoken to his mother since she left his father for Alfie, agreed. "If we had known things were as bad as they were, we'd have got her out of the house, " he said.

Alfie died on 15 December, and according to Eleanor, it was then that her mother stopped talking and refused to eat.

"She went downhill from there, " she said. "Before then she was lovely, so warm. We could talk about anything. She was always there for me. Now I'm just drained. I haven't had time to get over my mother's death and it's still not registering."

Kate Dempsey, an old neighbour of Evelyn's from when she lived with Alfie in Slaney Park View, described her as "a great friend and a lovely woman. I would pop in to visit her and she would come to bingo with me now and again in her wheelchair. But she was also very private and independent. She wouldn't want help from anyone. I couldn't believe it when I heard what happened to her".

Evelyn's brother, Tom Connolly, described how they fell out nearly a year ago because of his attempts to get her a special needs house with the town council.

"We had an argument after she accused me of interfering, " he said, "but while I tried to keep in contact she would not answer my calls."

Connolly also said he and other members of the family attempted to gain admittance to the Joel family home but "were shown the door" each time they tried to visit their sister, a claim Eleanor Joel denies.

"They never even knocked on the door. If they had I would have been glad to let them in, " she said.

Eleanor also refuted claims made by the Connollys that she was laughing and sniggering at the funeral. "They walked directly behind her when it should have been me and my brother. We were the chief mourners but they acted as if they were."

Meanwhile, Enniscorthy town councillor Tom Moorehouse told the Sunday Tribune he wished he had known Evelyn was in Cluain Dara when he visited the house last Hallowe'en to inspect a problem with the Joels' roof. According to Eleanor, Evelyn had been confined to her bedroom since September and was presumably in her room when the councillor called. "If I'd known she was there I would have asked to speak to her as I was anxious to get a home for her.

It's been annoying me ever since, " said Moorehouse.

Moorehouse had been working with Tom Connolly to get Evelyn a house and, while he knew Eleanor and helped her to get her council house in Cluain Dara, he never realised she was Evelyn's daughter and that it was in her house that Evelyn was living.

"I had been working for the last year-and-a-half to get a home for Evelyn Joel and was told one was being built for her this year. She was very anxious to get her own home, " he said. "It has crossed my mind that maybe if I could have seen her, could I somehow have made a difference?"

A lot of people in Enniscorthy asked themselves that question last week. So far, no answers have been forthcoming.