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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?

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Ralf and Florian

Red Kev wrote: »

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.

Eh? I'd harldly say murders were unheard of in Ireland in the 80's. This is a report on crime stats in 1982, the same year as The McAurther killing.Murder and manslaughter is page 6.

http://www.garda.ie/Documents/User/3%201982%20Commissioners%20Report.pdf

[Deleted User]

Killergreene wrote: »

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

It's Elaine O Hara, murdered by Graham Dwyer. She had special needs and was quite vunerable and he was a well-to-do married Architect from Foxrock. There were elements of violent sex and videos of same were used in court. One of the main pics of her used was her wearing a Leinster Rugby top.

[Deleted User]

JPCN1 wrote: »

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

And here's one that shows maybe it's a bad idea...

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

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

[Deleted User]

The murder suicide of the Dunne family in Wexford was a shocker. The father went and got his children measured for coffin sizes just heifer he did it. Harrowing.

hatrickpatrick

The Ballyseedy massacre is a story which has haunted me ever since I heard it. Near the end of the civil war, a group of IRA prisoners was taken from prison by the free state army and forced to clear land mines from a road, apparently in the hopes that they'd all get killed doing so (rage was high due to an ambush by the IRA a few days earlier in which several free state army personnel were killed). Essentially what happened was that the prisoners managed to clear the road successfully without setting off any of the mines, so some scumbag who was leading the army group decided to tie the prisoners together in a circle around a remaining mine and deliberately set it off to kill them. One guy was thrown into a nearby field by the force of the explosion and somehow survived with minimal injuries, which is how the story subsequently leaked out (the official line is that the men were simply killed accidentally while clearing mines).

I'm not sure why that story in particular sticks in my mind but I think it's just the unspeakable evil of letting these guys think they're safe and then the thought of what it must have been like waiting to die while the rest of the guys are being tied together, knowing they're going to blow you up at any moment. Summary execution is horrifying in and of itself but this one strikes me as particularly horrific given the psychological aspect of the prisoners' last moments and final thoughts while waiting to be blown up.

foxy farmer

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

The Ballyseedy massacre is a story which has haunted me ever since I heard it. Near the end of the civil war, a group of IRA prisoners was taken from prison by the free state army and forced to clear land mines from a road, apparently in the hopes that they'd all get killed doing so (rage was high due to an ambush by the IRA a few days earlier in which several free state army personnel were killed). Essentially what happened was that the prisoners managed to clear the road successfully without setting off any of the mines, so some scumbag who was leading the army group decided to tie the prisoners together in a circle around a remaining mine and deliberately set it off to kill them. One guy was thrown into a nearby field by the force of the explosion and somehow survived with minimal injuries, which is how the story subsequently leaked out (the official line is that the men were simply killed accidentally while clearing mines).

I'm not sure why that story in particular sticks in my mind but I think it's just the unspeakable evil of letting these guys think they're safe and then the thought of what it must have been like waiting to die while the rest of the guys are being tied together, knowing they're going to blow you up at any moment. Summary execution is horrifying in and of itself but this one strikes me as particularly horrific given the psychological aspect of the prisoners' last moments and final thoughts while waiting to be blown up.

Remember seeing a programme on Rte back along on that incident. There were some awful atrocities committed during the Civil War. Some of it is still close to the bone for some people.

timthumbni

The Colin Howell case (I think that's the name) was pretty shocking in NI anyway. Dramatised last year starring jimmy nesbitt it was just really weird.

Guy has an affair and they end up killing their partners. Quite chilling.

A great show if anyone hasn't saw it.

Paullimerick

The fella "John geary" in Newcastle west county limerick. Killed his gf his child and his gfs other child and a friend of hers with a screwdriver . sick. . And worst is I knew him years before that and was a grand fella

Corkgirl18

I second the Elaine O Hara case and the Anne Corcoran case.
Both absolutely tragic and very disturbing.

Michaeal McAreavey is also one that always sticks in my head.

[Deleted User]

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Essentially what happened was that the prisoners managed to clear the road successfully without setting off any of the mines, so some scumbag who was leading the army group decided to tie the prisoners together in a circle around a remaining mine and deliberately set it off to kill them. One guy was thrown into a nearby field by the force of the explosion and somehow survived with minimal injuries, which is how the story subsequently leaked out (the official line is that the men were simply killed accidentally while clearing mines).

Not sure it was simply one scumbag, they were taken out to be killed, they were never coming back to Tralee. The bodies were strafed with machine guns afterwards. Then the lumps of flesh were collected and placed in coffins.

In the Cahersiveen Masscre that same month, the executed prisoners had their limbs broken first to prevent them escaping.

Noddyholder

The abductions & murders of all them girls in leinster, I know there is a suspect for some, but still no one convicted, https://www.google.es/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwje95rKsa7SAhVItBQKHYDxAksQygQIHzAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FIreland's_Vanishing_Triangle%23The_missing_women&usg=AFQjCNFvBAmGvgKPdTpVafOUWIzPNcwnJg&bvm=bv.148073327,d.d24

That murder of the revenue official wife out in malahide, grace Livingston no one convicted either...https://www.google.es/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjgk5yosa7SAhVEOxQKHf90CUoQFggjMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.ie%2Firish-news%2Fcrime%2Fsomeone-killed-grace-but-it-wasnt-jimmy-livingstone-says-excop-34179544.html&usg=AFQjCNEx3BPnihbDx4ebjMxCoiz8XBUfeQ

There shocking in the way the killer or killers are still out there right now.

milehip

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Evans

Shaw and Evans:cant think of the names of their victims off hand
easily have to be 2 of the sickest men of Irish modern history.

jca

Knine wrote: »

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****

That was awful, he was a complete lunatic a dreadful excuse of a human being.

Sam Kade

Omackeral wrote: »

And here's one that shows maybe it's a bad idea...

The forensics have improved quite a bit since then;)

[Deleted User]

David O'Shea in Rathmore, Co. Kerry was hanged in 1931 for the rape and murder of Ellen O'Sullivan. The sometimes reported gory detail involves necrophilia. The case became famous because of the strong suspicion that the Gardai had planted evidence and the Judge was very circumspect about the manner in which they located clothes he was allegedly wearing, they claimed a Garda hid under a bed and overheard him talking to his sister.

[Deleted User]

Sam Kade wrote: »

The forensics have improved quite a bit since then;)

There's always the chance of fresh evidence. There's still plenty of innocent people locked up across the world and I'd say here in Ireland too there's probably one or two. It sucks but at least with things like The Innocence Project they have a chance of righting those wrongs. Hang someone and they're never coming back.

happyoutscan

Brendan O'Donnell was nuts. Wasnt it him who claimed he could shoot fire from his hands?

Sam Kade

John Crowley murdered in 1992 by a shotgun at close range his body was dumped and he died slowly over several hours.

LordSutch

The "Scissor Sisters" case was truly shocking . . . .

Shame the Irish tabloids came up with that name though, bearing in mind that there is a very popular American pop group going by the same name :cool:

KingBrian2

Killergreene wrote: »

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

It is the Elaine O' Hara case. The news kept showing that picture of her in the jersey. Stuck in my mind. Another really shocking one was the Ian Huntley case in the UK and Sky News reporter actually spoke to the guy live on air. Freaky.

tomofson

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.

I think if he was from a "lower class" background there would be much more uproar in relation to that case. But because he was a posh boy people just dont care about the light sentence all that much.

Harry Palmr

Todd Gack wrote: »

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

That sprung to mind, just seemed to sum up a class of people, the type you'd apply eugenics to.

KingBrian2

Some strange and deranged people out there.

Mike Guide 69

That bloke Mark Nash, who killed the couple in Roscommon and then went onto kill the 2 elderly pensioners in Grangegorman, one very evil man

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/mark-nash-profile-of-a-notorious-killer-31156696.html

Harry Palmr

Can anyone remember the case of a Wicklow pub owner commissioning a killing to make a fortune if I recall it rightly - I think she was dubbed the Black Window or something equally obvious.

r93kaey5p2izun

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Can anyone remember the case of a Wicklow pub owner commissioning a killing to make a fortune if I recall it rightly - I think she was dubbed the Black Window or something equally obvious.

Catherine Nevin?

Sam Kade

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Can anyone remember the case of a Wicklow pub owner commissioning a killing to make a fortune if I recall it rightly - I think she was dubbed the Black Window or something equally obvious.

She isn't in the best of health nowadays http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/crime/black-widow-catherine-nevin-a-9279122

Ferrari3600

Ralf and Florian wrote: »

Eh? I'd harldly say murders were unheard of in Ireland in the 80's. This is a report on crime stats in 1982, the same year as The McAurther killing.Murder and manslaughter is page 6.

http://www.garda.ie/Documents/User/3%201982%20Commissioners%20Report.pdf

24 murders in the entire year, i.e. two a month. So murders weren't unheard of exactly but certainly a lot lower than in recent years.

Population was around 3 million at the time so that approximates to a rate of 0.8 per 100,000. Compared to a recent rate of 2.11 per 100,000 per annum. Accordingly if I'm not mistaken the murder rate has almost trebled in 30 years?

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/crime/republic-of-ireland-is-deadliest-place-to-live-in-irish-and-british-isles-new-figures-34614775.html

Capt'n Midnight

milehip wrote: »

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Evans

Shaw and Evans:cant think of the names of their victims off hand
easily have to be 2 of the sickest men of Irish modern history.

http://www.thejournal.ie/irelands-longest-serving-prisoners-2542447-Jan2016/

Your Face

This is a weird thread.