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

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?

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.

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.