In the summer of 2017, body parts were discovered strewn across the scenic landscape of the Dublin and Wicklow mountains. Gardai began a wide-scale search and a murder investigation. But only days later a man presented himself at a south Dublin Garda station, confessing to the murder of his 61 year old mother in law, Patricia O’Connor.
But was he telling the whole story?
Continue reading “95 – Desecration: The murder of Patricia O’Connor”In February of 2008, two Polish men living and working in Drimnagh, South Dublin were killed in a fight outside their home. Both had been stabbed in the head with a screwdriver. It quickly emerged that the fight had involved a group of teenagers.
Would Gardai be able to identify his killer or killers prove their lethal intent?
Continue reading “91 – Pure Thuggery: The murders of Mariusz Szwajkos & Pawel Kalite”On 28th February 2006, Siobhan McLoughlin was found dead in locked bedroom. At first glance, it looked as if she had tragically taken her own life. But within hours after her death, police and the McLoughlin family felt sure that she had been brutally murdered.
But would the State be able to prove guilt, beyond a reasonable doubt?
Continue reading “90 – Beyond Reasonable Doubt: The murder of Siobhan McLoughlin”In April of 1986, three armed men burst into a lavish home in Howth. When they left, they brought with them Jennifer Guinness, mother of three and wife of the head of a merchant bank. A ransom was demanded for her return.
Despite the quick mobilisation of gardai all over Dublin, Jennifer’s captor would evade capture for over a week.
Continue reading “89 – The Ordeal: Jennifer Guinness”In 1925, while the Irish Free State was still in its infancy after the close of the civil war, the body of a young woman was found dead lying at a lonely cross roads in South County Dublin. Her name was Honor Bright, a woman who made her living as a sex worker in town.
Two men were tried for her shooting death, but was her killing a the result of her “unfortunate” status, or part of an attempt to keep scandal away from the halls of power in a newly-independent Ireland?
Continue reading “67 – Honor Bright: Murder in the Free State”In 1983, three women died in an horrific house fire at Blackpitts in Dublin. It would emerge that one of them – 34 year old Dolores Lynch – had been targeted by a violent and vengeful pimp. John Cullen was alleged to have held a grudge against the former sex worker for pursuing charges against him for an assault seven years before.
In the course of getting justice for Dolores Lynch, there would be shocking revelations about what went on in Dublin City under the cover of darkness.
Continue reading “63 – Under the cover of Darkness: Dolores Lynch & Lyn Madden”Gangs and drugs effect nearly every community. But in 2012, the Dublin suburb of Tallaght was shocked by the spillover of violence. 16 year old Melanie McCarthy McNamara was shot while she sat in the back of a parked car on a residential street. The gunman had shot from the back of a black SUV and sped off immediately.
Two men alleged to be involved in drugs locally were identified by gardai, and after protracted court battles have found themselves in prison in relation to Melanie’s killing.
Continue reading “58 – Murder by Mistake: Melanie McCarthy McNamara”In 1992, a murder unlike any other happened in the quiet seaside town of Malahide. Grace Livingstone (56) was bound and then shot in the head in her own home.
Gardai initially suspected that the culprit was someone close to her – Grace’s husband, Jim. But Jim himself suspected that whoever was responsible had taken their displeasure for him, and his position at the Irish taxing authority, out on poor Grace.
Her murder remains unsolved.
Continue reading “57 – Unsolved: The murder of Grace Livingstone”1990 was a decade of missing women. We remember the names of the unfound – Annie McCarrick, Eva Brennan, Jo Jo Dollard, Deirdre Jacob.
The names Patricia McGauley and Mary Cummins were once on that list. These two women disappeared from Dublin in the space of a year, and it wasn’t until a large scale review of cases of missing women from Dublin that a startling link was discovered between the two women. Both of them had unknowingly spent time with a predator: Michael Bambrick.
Continue reading “56 – Predator: The deaths of Patricia McGauley and Mary Cummins”Mary Gough tragically fell down the stairs in her home, only 6 months after her wedding day. Or, at least that’s what her husband, Colin Whelan, said. When Mary was rushed to the hospital after this purported accident, the Gardai did not take him at his word.
His story did not add up, and Colin Whelan was charged with with Mary’s murder. But when Whelan’s car was discovered at the top of Howth Head near the seaside cliffs, people thought that there would be no justice for Mary.
But they were wrong.
Continue reading “52 – Betrayal: The murder of Mary Gough”