nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

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?

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

marialouise

Another "vote" here for the Irish nurse Karen Buckley being murdered in Scotland, the details are quite gruesome.
Also kind of surprised that in 91 posts there wasn't any mention of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, I thought that was quite high-profile... I find the story very chilling.
Also this recent case in Waterford of the 90 year old farmer being murdered in his own home is outrageous.
Just read up on the Elaine O'Hara case, it's unbelievable. The above aren't as shocking but still highlight how deranged some people are! This is a strange thread indeed.

wakka12

Suppose Robert Cairns case, doubt theres much chance the lad made it long after he went missing. Very creepy, we don't have many cases like that in Ireland of kids disappearing without a trace, never to be heard of again. My dad was the same age as him when it happened and lived in Ballyroan so its just one of those things that seems a lot more real than others you'd hear about on the news

Roadtoad

Were all the 'recent' Northern Ireland murders excluded from this thread deliberately?

tomwaterford

Pkiernan wrote: »

The beating to death of those policemen who had the unfortunate job of attending some dirt bag IRA man's funeral.
Shows the savagery of some Shinners

Pretty sure they drove past tree sets of stewards to drive into the middle of a cortage.. <a week after loyalists shot up another ira funeral?
And were soldiers

But yes that was a terrible killing....noone should see their children/family members die like that

Though myself I always taught that young lad plumber who was shot for being in wrong place at wrong time
It couldve been anyone that happened to....making some extra money for xmas

Noddyholder

Roadtoad wrote: »

Were all the 'recent' Northern Ireland murders excluded from this thread deliberately?

Well most of the killings/murders/ in Northern Ireland were from a political/war/terrorism angle, So wouldn't actually be classed as Murder in the what's being discussed here, as that is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse.

Seth Brundle

wakka12 wrote: »

Suppose Robert Cairns case,

Philip Cairns?

wakka12

kbannon wrote: »

Philip Cairns?

Yes thats the one, apologies

mbarre

The house of horrors case in Cork in the 90s terrified me as a boy. Three men who lived in a house on Wellington Terrace all went missing, one after the other. In 96 one of the missing men's decomposing body was found in the woods. He had been hacked to pieces. To this day nobody knows where he buried the other men. The killer, Frederick Flannery was a local guy who kept to himself was charged and went on trial for the murder only for the judge to find that the police withheld vital evidence which was favourable to the accused. The judge threw the case out and ruled that Mr. Flannery never be charged in relation to the murder henceforth. He got away with murder as a result of Garda corruption and ineptitude. He hanged himself in 2003.

Rows Grower

I remember that house of horrors case, scary stuff. Flannery was only a tiny man too, I think his nephew gave evidence against him but because he had been a drug user it wasn't allowed.

That more recent murder of the Polish guy in Ballincollig where he was hacked to death in front of his wife and kids stands out as the most shocking one I have read about. A serious amount of experienced Gardai had to have counselling afterwards because it was so shocking.

I hope to God they find the people who did it and they are convicted.

mbarre

Rows Grower,

When we were kids we were creeped out by it. My father would have been the same generation as Fred Flannery and they all used to frequent the old snooker Hall which is now an O'Donovans off license in Mayfield. I think he had a brother also who was a bit of a brute. Ireland's vanishing triangle is rather creepy too. Yeah that case was absolutely harrowing to read about. Those poor children. Murder is almost an everyday occurrence in the emerald Isle unfortunately.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

For me, one of the most shocking Irish cases was a foiled murder plot rather than a murder - the Lying Eyes case from a decade or so ago where Sharon Collins hired a man to kill her millionaire boyfriend and his two sons (which thankfully didn’t happen). Being willing to dispatch with three men just to get your grubby mitts on their money? Putting so little value on human life? How can anyone be THAT obsessed with filthy lucre? It chilled me to my very core. And she did very little jail time for the plot, only something like four years.

Rows Grower

mbarre wrote: »

Rows Grower,

When we were kids we were creeped out by it. My father would have been the same generation as Fred Flannery and they all used to frequent the old snooker Hall which is now an O'Donovans off license in Mayfield. I think he had a brother also who was a bit of a brute. Ireland's vanishing triangle is rather creepy too. Yeah that case was absolutely harrowing to read about. Those poor children. Murder is almost an everyday occurrence in the emerald Isle unfortunately.

I was at a funeral in Farranree last week and his brother was there and spoke to me briefly afterwards. He seemed like an ordinary pleasant working class guy to me who was using a crutch.

I'd never met him before and shortly afterwards one of my brothers told me who he was but it was more along the line of "Do you know who that fellas brother was?"

Small world.

Spanish Eyes

I recall an awful murder out in Castleknock where the deceased was disembowelled and the murderer, well he did something awful with the entrails.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/criminal-court/saverio-bellante-admits-killing-landlord-and-eating-parts-of-body-1.2302101

Whiplashy

I came across the story of Bridget Cleary a few years ago and was horrified by it. Burnt to death by her husband for being taken over by the fairies. Loads of family members in the house and no one intervened.

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/news/offbeat/the-story-of-the-last-witch-burned-alive-in-ireland-1.2880691%3fmode=amp

Dr_serious2

Murder of Mary Breheny was really sickening - conviction of Patrick Kelly was a bit dodgy as well it seems, although he may well have done it.

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.independent.ie/regionals/sligochampion/lifestyle/the-hanging-of-a-riverstown-man-recalled-in-book-34776646.html

Wheres Me Jumper?

The Shankill Butchers.

Pure pyschos, especially Lenny Murphy who liked to use a butcher's knife on his victims.

Rows Grower

Wheres Me Jumper? wrote: »

The Shankill Butchers.

Pure pyschos, especially Lenny Murphy who liked to use a butcher's knife on his victims.

It's well over 25 years since I read the book by Martin Dillon and I've never read a more disturbing book since.

Jameswhalley

happyoutscan wrote: »

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

He was mad , there's a story to be told there in relation to him and other murders

Wheres Me Jumper?

Rows Grower wrote: »

It's well over 25 years since I read the book by Martin Dillon and I've never read a more disturbing book since.

i think the way that they took such enjoyment in it makes it impossible to fathom.

GoodVoice

fiachr_a wrote: »

Kyle Curran, a child killing from the 1980s that got forgetten.

Not forgotten by those there. I only mentioned him name not more than a month ago when I was talking to some colleagues at work about the Ana Kriegel trial.

I grew up in Gracedieu. We played in the Barley Fields, at the bottom of the hill of what used to be the end of Hillview, just beyond Bollicky Whelans. That night Kyle went missing was the end of our carefree childhoods. I was 12, just 4 years old than Kyle.

Raconteuse

mbarre wrote: »

The house of horrors case in Cork in the 90s terrified me as a boy. Three men who lived in a house on Wellington Terrace all went missing, one after the other. In 96 one of the missing men's decomposing body was found in the woods. He had been hacked to pieces. To this day nobody knows where he buried the other men. The killer, Frederick Flannery was a local guy who kept to himself was charged and went on trial for the murder only for the judge to find that the police withheld vital evidence which was favourable to the accused. The judge threw the case out and ruled that Mr. Flannery never be charged in relation to the murder henceforth. He got away with murder as a result of Garda corruption and ineptitude. He hanged himself in 2003.

Rows Grower wrote: »

I remember that house of horrors case, scary stuff. Flannery was only a tiny man too, I think his nephew gave evidence against him but because he had been a drug user it wasn't allowed.

How are people so certain that Flannery did it?

[Deleted User]

Can't remember the names but a man murdered his wife and adopted baby by tampering with the gas supply in the house. He did it because it was going to come out that he already had a child and lied about this in the adoption application he killed rather than be found out.

[Deleted User]

There was also the case of a very respectable civil servent who shot his wife one afternoon and tried to blame the IRA he was never convicted and stuck to his story although it was well known he did it.

John_Rambo

mariaalice wrote: »

Can't remember the names but a man murdered his wife and adopted baby by tampering with the gas supply in the house. He did it because it was going to come out that he already had a child and lied about this in the adoption application he killed rather than be found out.

Frank McCann. GUBU stuff. Fathered a child with a special needs underage victim. He and his wife were trying to adopt a girl, he killed them both when he knew his wife would find out about his secret daughter.