Unsolved Irish Mysteries.

Just been watching CrimeCall and that Icelandic poker player guy who vanished off the Swords Rd: that was a puzzle, for sure.

The Gardaí say they received two anonymous letters which they regard as believable; leading to a search of lands around Santry. But they found nothing; and the sender of those letters probably knows more than they said….the whole thing is a mystery.

Fellow had only been in Dublin just a day or two; what on earth could have happened?

It MUST have had to do with the poker game which he had attended the previous night. I assume. But that's hardly a cause for abduction or murder. #baffled

https://www.rte.ie/news/ulster/2026/0331/1566011-marian-beattie-appeal/

This was covered in the BBC series, Murder in the Badlands.

From the interviews and reconstructions, it seemed that the murderer was known to the local community and the authorities…

She was reported missing after the dance at the local police station. In the police station was a person who, (as claimed in the programme) was seen entering the dance hall in the company of the person she was seen leaving with and walking towards the quarry.

IIRC, he claimed he was on duty and denied being at the dance.

Re Jon J, I listened to the podcast, very detailed and so sad to hear his family, clearly at their wits ends. Did anyone else think the situation with the partner/girlfriend a bit odd? Lost passport, so arrived a day late, then as soon as she arrived, JJ went out? She gave a good account on the podcast though, I guess these things happen.

"Joanne Hayes was arrested and charged after Baby John’s body was found in 1984, but the charge was later dropped and a tribunal of inquiry was set up to investigate the handling of her case by gardaí."

Garda scum!

In fairness to the Guards - (I'm not defending corruption or bullying, at all, but….)

When they had examined the body of a brutally murdered newborn, they naturally enquired at Maternity hospitals if any woman had arrived with no living baby to show. And there was one! They HAD to follow that up! She said her baby had been born dead and buried on her farm. Oh yeah? they said - show us, please. And she DID. It was true!

It was at that point that the Guards should have abandoned this line of enquiry - in spite of the remarkable coincidence. But they just wouldn't let go of their pet theory and from there on, their conduct was aggressive and inexcusable; they demonised that poor woman.

Corrupt, yes: but in the initial stages they were acting reasonably. Youi'd have done the same, up to the point where they saw the real dead baby on the farm. It was there they should have stopped and looked elsewhere!

I really hope this case is solved. I suspect a series of family tragedies may lie behind it, but justice deserves not only to be done, but to be seen.

From the bit I saw on the news they found the couple with matching DNA with the baby. Questioned the couple for 24 hours let them go - three years ago. And now has the solicitor representing the couple basically saying to the authorities hurry up and make a decision. It all seems very bizarre to me.

Oh, I don't know any facts - just a prickling between the shoulder blades. The persons concerned must have been very young at the time - if you work out from 1984 to nowadays and their given ages - and in that case, there might have been older adults involved. Impossible to say and gratuitous to speculate.

Somebody murdered a baby and that was a crime, whatever the back story may have been.