What do you think were the most shocking murder cases in Ireland and why do you think

suziki832

What do you think were the most shocking murder cases in Ireland and why do you think some may be more shocking than others?

Zaph

Well what do you think were the most shocking murder cases in Ireland and why? The least you can do is give your opinion if you're expecting others to do the same.

Jack the Stripper

Someone is on edge.

suziki832

Zaph wrote: »

Well what do you think were the most shocking murder cases in Ireland and why? The least you can do is give your opinion if you're expecting others to do the same.

Elaine O Haras. I think Graham Dwyer just seemed like a normal well-to-do guy and it was pretty shocking for people that someone who appeared so 'normal' was a wolf in sheeps clothing. In comparison to some of the gang related crimes.

Now there you go. Thats my opinion

Seth Brundle

Shocking in what way?
Nowadays we don't shock as easily as 50 or 100 years ago.
Nonetheless, I'd say the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

Lady Chatterton

All murders are shocking but for me the one that still haunts me 23 years on is a murder committed by Brendan Patrick O'Donnell in Cregg Wood, Co. Clare.

Imelda Riney (29), her son Óisin (3) and Fr. Joe Walsh (37) lost their lives (RIP)

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/bodies-of-mother-and-son-3-were-found-ritually-slain-murder-trial-is-told-1.22131

KingBrian2

The Veronica Guerin case was shocking in its time but personally that case of the women in the Leinster Jersey who was murdered. Not to ofay with the case but it was well documented and covered in the press.

Going Forward

The murder of John Horgan.

Truly shocking.

http://www.broadsheet.ie/tag/lorcan-bale/

The Boy in the Attic.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056419835

Noveight

Lady Chatterton wrote: »

a murder committed by Brendan Patrick O'Donnell in Cregg Wood, Co. Clare.

Never before heard of that murder, in my own county and all. Absolutely chilling.

Red Kev

July 1982. The murders of Bridie Gargan in the Phoenix Park and farmer Donal Dunne three days later by Malcolm McArthur. He was found hiding in the then Attorney General's appartment. In between the muder and the arrest he had had a chat with the Garda Commissioner about the murders. It gave rise to the GUBU term.

If it happened today boards.ie, Twitter and Facebook would collapse under the strain, it was so shocking.

Murders in Ireland were almost unheard of back then outside of the NI conflict, but a random killing of a nurse in the Park and how she was found would cause a huge story even today.

To me, still the most shocking one of the lot, even though I was living in Germany when Veronica Guerin was murdered and it made top news there three days running.

The murderer, Malcolm Edward MacArthur, born 17 April 1945, was a well-known eccentric character in Dublin social circles and never held a job, as he lived off inheritance from the sale of his father's farm, after his death in 1974. However, as his money ran out, MacArthur decided to fund his lifestyle by robbery. First he decided to purchase a gun and responded to an advertisement by Dónal Dunne, a farmer in Edenderry, County Offaly who had a shotgun for sale. However, having no transport and needing to get from Dublin to Edenderry, he decided to steal a car.

On 22 July 1982, a nurse named Bridie Gargan (aged 27) had been sunbathing in the Phoenix Park in Dublin during her time off work. MacArthur, intending to steal her car, bludgeoned her with a hammer. In the ensuing confusion, MacArthur drove off, leaving the dying Gargan on the back seat.

At this point a passing ambulance became involved and escorted MacArthur to the hospital, as the driver mistook him for a doctor because of a windscreen sticker which Gargan had. MacArthur later abandoned the car nearby. Three days later, having found alternative means to get to Edenderry, MacArthur visited the farmer Dónal Dunne and murdered him with his own shotgun after examining it. MacArthur then stole Dunne's car and drove it to Dublin. These two violent murders created a sensation, as unmotivated murder in Ireland, coupled with the youth and respectability of the nurse and farmer, was an unusual set of circumstances.

The Garda Síochána (Irish police) soon had a description of the person they wanted.


MacArthur was acquainted with Patrick Connolly, the then Attorney General, who was the chief legal advisor to the Irish Government. Both attended a match in Croke Park, several days after the murder, and this led to a discussion between Connolly, MacArthur, and the then Garda Commissioner, Patrick McLoughlin, regarding the murder. (MacArthur even asked McLoughlin about the investigation of the "dreadful" murder.) On 13 August 1982, after a massive search, MacArthur was arrested on the private property of Connolly, and had been staying in the property for some time as a guest. Connolly, who had been getting ready for holiday, continued on his journey to the United States and did not give any interview to the Gardaí on the matter.

A serious effort was made to prevent the relationship between Connolly and MacArthur becoming public and indeed it was claimed that this was homosexual, something that was later discounted. Connolly was promptly requested to return to Ireland where he then resigned on 16 August. Haughey attempted to distance himself from the fiasco and described the event as "a bizarre happening, an unprecedented situation, a grotesque situation, an almost unbelievable mischance."

MacArthur admitted his guilt of the murder of the nurse. Because of this, he was not tried for Dunne's murder as the state entered a plea of nolle prosequi. This led to a petition of 10,000 signatures to ensure MacArthur would be tried for his murder. This was unsuccessful and MacArthur received a life sentence for just one murder.

Amalgam

McArthur got off lightly.. [EDIT] ..in the sense that he was kept at a hospital and relatively speaking, the relaxed regimen of an open prison, later in his incarceration.

How he killed the nurse and farmer.. If you look at the story of his life, that kind of 'character' is very hard to correct, if at all. The crimes were just a 'blossoming' of the very root of who he was.

eviltwin

The Hawe case

Red Kev

Amalgam wrote: »

McArthur got off lightly.. How he killed the nurse and farmer.. If you look at the story of his life, that kind of 'character' is very hard to correct, if at all. The crimes were just a 'blossoming' of the very root of who he was.

Michael McDowell defended him BTW. He was never tried for murdering the farmer, he served about 30 years, but I'm not sure how much psychological counselling he received.

My uncle was a Garda at the time, he was told more than once that we didn't even hear half of the story and that McArthur had a lot of damaging information on a lot of people.

Yamanoto

In 1963 Shan Mohangi (a South African medical student attending RCSI) strangled and dismembered his 16-year-old girlfiend, Hazel Mullen, then attempted to incinerate her remains in the Green Tureen restaurant on Harcourt Street.

Having seen his death sentence reduced to manslaughter & serving a paltry four years of a seven year sentence, he changed his name and returned to Durban after his release & ran for political office, though he was outed for his crime & withdrew his candidacy.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/shan-...t-him-1.729751

r93kaey5p2izun

They're all very shocking really but some stand out based on the manner of the act itself, of how the body was treated afterwards or the type of person the perpetrator seemed to be.

The Graham Dwyer case is like something out of a novel on all counts. Almost too far fetched only it's real. Same with the John Horgan murder.

For personal reasons I find murders carried out by people suffering serious mental illness have a bigger impact on me. Familial murders too - though they very often don't result in any trial or adequate examination of the perpetrators (imo).

freshpopcorn

For me it would have to be Rachel O'Reilly. I was around twelve at the time and we even had a class discussion about it. It was just such an interesting case
about a young mother being murdered after doing the school run.
Then there was The Late Late Show interview, finding out about Joe's affair and finding out Rachel was adopted and having a twin sister.
Then during the trial we found out about the details of E-mails and text message and how Joe's mobile was a crucial part of evidence.

retro:electro

When Rachel Callaly was murdered by her husband Joe O' Reilly. Seeing him on The Late Late alongside her mother, the absolute gall of him.

I remember reading the book her mother wrote about the murder, and how she had her inklings about him during that interview. She summed up so perfectly how grief is manifested when someone dies. The day after her murder, she wrote "I remember sitting in the car and looking out the window seeing people laughing, the birds were singing, the kids were cheering, people were going about their day to day lives. "How can they do this?" I thought. "Do they not know that Rachel is dead?". Sums up perfectly that indescribable feeling when you just want the world to stop turning.

Red Kev

Wayne O'Donoghue murdering Robert Holohan. Always an odd story that a man of his age would play with an 11 year old. But taking part in the search was callous and cold hearted to say the least.

He only sat 3 years for manslaughter as well.

r93kaey5p2izun

Slightly off topic but on a related matter - how far back would the articles and reports available through paid subscription to the Irish Times go? There is a case I would like to read more about in terms of how it was reported at the time but nothing shows up on google or a search on IT or the Indo websites. Would I find what I'm looking for with a paid subscription or are these things available in a library somewhere?

Samuel T. Cogley

Mary “Moll” McCarthy - The wrong man was hanged in 1941 it took until 2015/16 to clear his name.

Grayson

Marioara Rostas, a 18 year old Roma girl, who was kidnapped beaten raped and tortured over the course of a week before being shot and having her body dumped in the mountains. I think if she had've been Irish the outcry would have been bigger and it would have been front page news.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/the-life-and-death-of-marioara-rostas-181766.html

retro:electro

Being from Galway, the rape and murder of Swiss student Manuela Riedo is one that absolutely devestated people of the locality. The scumbag who murdered her should never have been walking the streets and the case highlights the pressing need for legal reform in this country.

jca

The murder suicide of the Flood family in Clonroche still upsets me. I spoke to one of the children's teachers not long after it happened, very very sad.

Knine

Sharon Whelan who was murdered by her Postman on Christmas Eve. Her poor girls gone to bed waiting on Santa & he set fire to the house leaving them to perish. Bas****

Todd Gack

The vicious murder of the two Polish lads in Drimnagh by a teenager with a screwdriver

Todd Gack

Grayson wrote: »

Marioara Rostas, a 18 year old Roma girl, who was kidnapped beaten raped and tortured over the course of a week before being shot and having her body dumped in the mountains. I think if she had've been Irish the outcry would have been bigger and it would have been front page news.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/the-life-and-death-of-marioara-rostas-181766.html

Very sad and disturbing case all around, her suspected murderer was acquitted a couple of years ago too.

Killergreene

KingBrian2 wrote: »

The Veronica Guerin case was shocking in its time but personally that case of the women in the Leinster Jersey who was murdered. Not to ofay with the case but it was well documented and covered in the press.

Which was the lady in leinster jersey. Can't find anything on google.
Thanks

Killergreene

The murder committed by that oddball Alexander panctau on the poor Irish nurse in Scotland is one of the sickest cases I've ever heard.

foxy farmer

This woman came from the same parish as myself.
Irish Times Logo
A murder shocking for its sheer brutality
BACKGROUND: Even in a society becoming inured to violence, Oliver Hayes’s crime stands out, writes BARRY ROCHE, Southern Correspondent…

Fri, Mar 5, 2010, 00:00

BACKGROUND:Even in a society becoming inured to violence, Oliver Hayes’s crime stands out, writes BARRY ROCHE,Southern Correspondent

YESTERDAY’S CONVICTION of Oliver Hayes for the murder of 60-year-old widow Anne Corcoran marked a successful conclusion to a case which, even in a society becoming increasingly inured to violence, was shocking for its sheer brutality.

Hayes’s abduction and subsequent murder of Mrs Corcoran from her home at Maulnaskimlehane in Kilbrittain stands out for its vicious ferocity and ruthless coldness.

The description of how Hayes, a part-time painter and decorator from Clancool Terrace in Bandon, bludgeoned Mrs Corcoran into oblivion on the night of January 19th, 2009, after obtaining her bank card number from her, shocked people.

One of a family of nine children born to a farm labourer from Danganbeg some two miles outside Bandon, Hayes (49) was reared by a neighbour’s daughter after he was left with her by his mother when just nine months old as she went on a pilgrimage to Knock. “They came back from Knock and they said I could stay for another while. Week by week went by – it was grand because it was one less mouth to feed. My father was only an ordinary labourer,” Hayes told gardaí following his arrest.

Hayes targeted Mrs Corcoran because she was living alone following the death of her husband Jerry in 2007. He believed that, having a farm, she had money and he was two years in arrears in his mortgage and heavily in debt.

He called to her house on January 19th, grabbed her from behind, demanded money and when she told him that it was in the bank, he told her he would have to take her with him so he tied her hands with a washing line and bundled her into the boot of her car.

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He brought her to his house in Bandon where after half an hour, she gave him her Pin number and he then hit her on the head with a table top until she fell unconscious. “I was afraid she’d escape while I was gone. I thought I’d knock her out,” he told gardaí.

Hayes then drove back to Mrs Corcoran’s house, collected her ATM card and withdrew cash from the AIB in Bandon before going home to bed and waking the next morning to find the widow, whom he had gagged, wasn’t breathing as she lay on the floor surrounded by blood.

He wrapped Mrs Corcoran’s body in two coal sacks and brought her to isolated woodlands near Garrettstown where he poured petrol on her remains and set her alight.

Hayes’s crime didn’t take long to be uncovered. Mrs Corcoran was well known for informing neighbours whenever she was leaving on holiday and when it was discovered that her dogs were not at kennels, but were soiling her house, the alarm was raised and gardaí alerted.

Gardaí found her green Peugeot 206 at Oldcastle just outside Bandon on January 28th and a check on her bank account revealed that somebody was withdrawing money using her ATM card.

Gardaí officially treated Mrs Corcoran’s disappearance as a missing person’s investigation and hundreds of volunteers joined officers in combing the countryside between Bandon and Kilbrittain in terribly wet weather.

Meanwhile Hayes, just two days after subjecting Mrs Corcoran to the most violent of deaths, was displaying an unnerving coolness as he went off on a skiing holiday to Austria with his girlfriend, Josephine Collins, and her son.

Before he went, he yet again gave vent to what one investigator described as his “Jekyll and Hyde personality”, returning to Mrs Corcoran’s house to feed her dogs. “I didn’t want them to suffer,” he later told gardaí.

Further insight into Hayes’s strange personality came when jurors heard evidence of how he attended his regular meeting of Clonakilty Camera Club just days after bludgeoning Mrs Corcoran to death.

“Oliver was always quiet at meetings – he photographed mainly flowers and abstract subjects. I remember one year we were holding our annual exhibition and two of his pictures sold and he donated the money to the Irish Cancer Society. We were shocked when all this broke.”

However Hayes’s violent and criminal tendencies were already well known to gardaí in Bandon. As far back as 1981, he had been investigated and prosecuted for breaking into the home of a local shopkeeper in her 80s and stealing cash and other items.

“The woman lived alone and he broke in just before Christmas. He removed the fuse so that she couldn’t turn on the light, so he was showing cunning even then,” said a retired garda who recalled how Hayes gave the family of his then girlfriend a Christmas cake that he had stolen.

“He admitted about five or six other burglaries at the homes of elderly people but he was unusual in that he wasn’t a persistent criminal. He would go straight for four or five years and then he would get a rush of blood and go off and commit crime again.”

That inability to go straight surfaced again in 2000 when, in a case premonitory of Anne Corcoran’s killing, Hayes targeted an elderly woman living alone in the townland of Baurleigh, just a mile from Mrs Corcoran’s home.

Hayes approached the elderly woman and grabbed her from behind, but the woman managed to scream and a neighbour heard her and was coming to see what was the matter when Hayes fled.

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The woman told gardaí that her assailant had paint drops on his shoes and drove a grey van. Gardaí were able to identify Hayes, who received a suspended sentence in February 2001 for assault with intent to rob.

With such a record, it wasn’t surprising Hayes became a suspect in the Corcoran case, but it still took good police work by gardaí under Supt Eddie Mac Eoin – aided by the local knowledge of long-serving Det Jim Fitzgerald – to nail him. Det Fitzgerald had been giving evidence in the money laundering trial of Ted Cunningham when Mrs Corcoran went missing. During a break in that trial, he viewed CCTV footage taken of someone withdrawing cash from her account.

He recognised the suspect’s unusual gait as being possibly that of Hayes and when officers were able to blow up footage of a grey vehicle seen near the ATM to reveal a Notts Forest sticker on the back window, Det Fitzgerald nominated Hayes as a suspect.

His suspicions proved correct and after his arrest, Hayes confessed the killing to Det Fitzgerald and his colleague, Det Bart O’Leary, telling them where he had buried the body, thus launching the murder inquiry which ended last night with his conviction following an 11-day trial.

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Killergreene

Red Kev wrote: »

Wayne O'Donoghue murdering Robert Holohan. Always an odd story that a man of his age would play with an 11 year old. But taking part in the search was callous and cold hearted to say the least.

He only sat 3 years for manslaughter as well.

The ****er works as an accountant over in the U.K. Now too. His profile on the company website is readily available via google. Pure scum.

JPCN1

Some good reasons for the re-introduction of the death penalty here.