126 – Sex, Lies and Videotape: the murder of Gerry McGinley

In August of 2000, Gerry McGinley disappeared from his home near Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh. His wife Julie said he had packed up a plastic bag and had taken off.

The police investigation came up with numerous leads. Had Gerry fallen foul of the Real IRA? Or maybe he’d crossed drug dealers? Was his former lover – or indeed her husband – enraged enough to make him run, or worse? It also seemed likely Gerry had been blackmailing local men with videos they’d rather not exist…

Or perhaps the answer was much closer to home, and to be found in the newly re-decorated master bedroom of the McGinley’s bungalow…

This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.

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124 – Siobhan Hynes: Murder Most Foul

17 year old Siobhan Hynes went out with friends to the small village of an Cheathru Rua on the night of Sat 5th December 1998. She never made it home.

Siobhan’s body was found the following day, on the foreshore of a nearby beach.

How could something like this happen in such a small, isolated community?

This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.

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123 – Death in the Sun: Celine Conroy

In the summer of 2005, Celine Conroy decided to pack up her three kids to spend the summer in Spain alongside her partner Paul Hickey. But rather than a relaxing escape from her life back in Dublin, the holiday ended in horror.

This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.

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122 – Darragh Conroy: the mobile phone murder

On the night of the 11th Nov, 2003, Patricia Conroy frantically searched the small midlands town of Mountmellick for her 14 year old son Darragh. He wasn’t answering the new mobile phone he’d just received and he hadn’t come home when expected.

Ms Conroy had no idea that hours earlier, Darragh had crossed paths with a schoolmate – 16 year old Darren Goodwin – and her son would not be coming home.

This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.

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121 – For Reasons Unknown: The murder of Kenneth O’Brien

In January of 2016, people started to find body parts wrapped in shopping bags on a stretch of the Grand Canal in Co. Kildare. To gardai, this looked like a gangland hit. But when the remains were identified as 33 year old Kenneth O’Brien, it was quickly determined that he was not known to be involved in anything illegal.

Why was Kenneth O’Brien killed?

This episode was researched and written by Aileen Spearin.

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120 – Dear Diary: The murder of Alison Shaughnessy

In June of 1991, 21 year old newly-wed Alison Shaughnessy was found lying in a pool of blood at the entrance to her flat in London by her husband John. After a stalled police investigation, two women were arrested and tried for Alison’s murder.

But is it possible that what was presented to the court as motive for her murder, gleaned from a 21 year old woman’s diary, had pointed police in the wrong direction?

Who killed Alison Shaughnessy?

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119: Missing Mary

Mary Boyle disappeared from a swampy field next her grandparents home in an isolated part of Donegal in 1977. She disappeared without  a trace, and her case has become the longest running missing child case in Ireland.

In forty years, the case has seen only one arrest and also has been linked with notorious Scottish child-killer Robert Black, and has drawn the attention of controversial media figures. But, through all that, Mary is still missing, and her mother still prays daily to know what happened to her.

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118 – Raonaid Murray (from the Guilt Trip Archives)

On the night of the 3rd of September 1999, Raonaid Murray was walking home through Dun Laoghaire and Glenageary in South Dublin.

As she took a short cut through a quiet laneway, she was attacked.

Her murder has never been solved.

Research Assistance by Eileen MacFarlene

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117 – The Burden They Carry: The murder of Marie Kilmartin

In December of 1993, 35 year old Marie Kilmartin got a phone call. Then, she left her house and never returned.

Marie’s body was recovered some six months later, in a bog 25 km from her home in Portlaoise. She had been strangled.

Why would anyone want to hurt this friendly, vulnerable woman?

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