In October 1971, on a rural lane south of the village of Ratoath, Co Meath, Una Lynsky disappeared while walking a short distance from a bus stop to her home. Around that time, screams were heard and a strange car was seen driving up and down the lane. But three local lads, Dick Donnelly, Martin Kerrigan, and Martin Conmey found that they were the ones who had drawn the attention of the notorious Murder Squad of the Garda Siochana.
By the end of the year, two young people from Porterstown Lane would be dead. Two trials would follow and a series of appeals to try and clear a man’s name of guilt that did not belong to him.
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Theme Music:
Quinn’s Song: First Dance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by
Sources:
The Criminal Justice Act 1993 (available here: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1993/act/6/enacted/en/print)
DPP -V- MARTIN CONMEY, [2012] IECCA 75 (2012)
Sarah McInerney, Where No One Can Hear You Scream (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2008) Purchase here
Michael Clifford, “Martin Conmey walks the long, hard, road to justice” in TheIrishExaminer https://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/columnists/michael-clifford/martin-conmey-walks-the-long-hard-road-to-justice-430703.html (16 November 2016)
Mary Carolan, “State apologises to man jailed in miscarriage of justice” in theIrishTimeshttps://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/state-apologises-to-man-jailed-in-miscarriage-of-justice-1.2868751 (15 November 2016)
Aodhan O’Faoilan, “An innocent man; Martin Conmey, 63, was jailed for the manslaughter of his neighbour in 1972… yesterday his name was finally cleared after a ‘miscarriage of justice’.. TheFreeLibraryhttps://www.thefreelibrary.com/An+innocent+man%3b+Martin+Conmey%2c+63%2c+was+jailed+for+the+manslaughter…-a0376505736 (2014)
Michael Clifford, “40 years waiting to clear his name ‘ in TheIrishExaminerhttps://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/profiles/40-years-waiting-to-clear-his-name-199954.html (7 July 2012)
https://www.townlands.ie/meath/ratoath/rathbeggan/dunshaughlin/porterstown/