Murder at the Cottage | Sky

Any journalist or writer would type up an article for onwards dictation. It allows for it to be checked over again. Handwritten stories usually have many notes written in sidelines.

I do a lot of speaking. All speeches are handwritten, then checked, things added, things deleted, rewritten and then put in a document on the PC. I know other speakers who do it the exact same way. And I know news contributors that do it that way too. It's how it has always been done, And I would suspect 1996 was no different.

Reading your posts, you try every possible slant to try and convince yourself it was IB. You ignore context in almost everything. It like you are blind to the obvious, or just don't want to see what is in front of you.

"He was supposed to have the story in on the morning of the 23rd, between 10 and 10.30 am."

 10:30 Mon. deadline for a Sunday paper?

I know very little about Alfie Lyons or his property dealings, sorry.

Apologies if this has been covered already but it strikes me as strange that Alfies wife is the one who finds the body at 10am or later (hope i'm correct with the time) on that Monday morning. It's a Monday two days before Christmas so you'd expect the postman to have been up that way before then, especially considering at least one of the houses was occupied permenently. What about a milk delivery or newspaper delivery even?

You don't find it curious in the French documentary he had an elaborate story about how he was advising Sophie when she moved in, showing her around the house, advising her about tradesmen, when on available evidence it could not have happened?

What was the story about?

A white-hot new trend called 'Internet cafes'...

This could have been verified if the Gardaí had done so at the time.

If he created a document on his computer it would retain the time created in the document properties, assuming once created he wouldn't need to change it.

And if he printed the document out there may be a record on the PC time-stamping when the document was sent to the printer.

If I was interested in him as a suspect, surely I would confiscate his computer and check these kinds of things. Haven't heard whether they did or not though.

I would suggest the postman had more drink on him than Bailey had the night before...

It was quite common for the rural folks to pour a shot of whiskey for the postman around Christmas time, in fact, it would be frowned upon if you didn't.

I remember 25yrs ago, our postie was blotto on the armchair with his van full of Christmas post outside the front gate.... When he eventually roused from his intoxicated slumber, he stated that was just what the Doctor ordered (a nap / falling unconscious), as his next call poured almighty measures of the good shtuff.....

So Bailey remembering what his movements were after a bender would be sketchy at best. Given that he was drinking till the small hours (I read somewhere Jules saying they were in a lock in that night), I doubt very much that Bailey could remember most, if anything of the previous 24hrs.

If you accept that Bailey is an alcoholic (granted, a functioning alcoholic), you also have to accept that his account of his movements on any given day are subject to variables depending on how much he consumed within the previous 12/24hrs.

He drinks wine like its blackcurrant cordial.

I'm guessing that Bailey was relaying a typical night after drinking heavily - Get mangled, go home, pour a couple of night caps, head up the stairs.... goodnight vienna!

Jules recalls him getting up during the night.... Bailey has to ponder what the f*ck he got up for... Oh yeah, to write a piece on computers or something, but can also pour a few shots of something too...

Alcoholics are the same as any other addict, they'll do anything to get another shot of liquor. I suggest that was what was driving him more that some French bird who was probably in bed anyway, a couple of miles away over the bleak moors of West Cork.

The deeper you look into the shenanigans going on around the time of the murder, the more obvious multiple lines of enquiry become ....

There is a self confessed person driving around the roads near the murder scene at an ungodly hour of the morning. The same person contacts the Gards stating she seen a man down by the bridge the same night, but will not divulge the identity of the male she was with during the killing hours. (That makes at least two people in the area at the time of the murder)

You have Alfie Lyons - Schull's answer to breaking bad doing his thing next door.

You have the young buck looking at a long sentence for drugs related offences, who magically provides details of a Bailey confession as his charges evaporate into thin air..

Strikes me as odd.... Alfie Lyons and his woman were minding a dog (s), yet neither one of them, nor their mutt heard the commotion going on outside right beside them... Nearly as strange as half the parish reporting their hounds acting queer around the same time in the early hours..

Mr. Blue Fiesta - Where was he racing to, or more like, racing from..?

Why pinpoint Bailey as their prime suspect? There are plenty more people of interest to persue before him.

as this is the dregs now.

The postman (and back then it was only men) would have to have something to deliver first. It was 23rd Dec. At that stage the amount of post has dwindled to very little as volumes tail off dramatically just before Christmas.

And as someone said, local postie would be getting a little tipple here and there and Christmas chats and of course a card and probably a tenner enclosed from many of the rural dwellers. Would probably be late afternoon before he got there, if he had anything to deliver.

Not in the last 18 months as the pubs have been closed. 😀 But sometimes I don't really get into the mode and the event comes right at you and the writing is done on the day itself. Doesn't happen often, but has happened and more frequently that I'd like to admit especially if its something you really can't be bothered to do. - And I just do this as a hobby so no more than 15-20 engagements in a year.

I drink very little, so put same scenario to someone that drinks regularly and add in the Christmas season and I (and anyone that does speech writing or article writing) certainly would see this a not just very plausible, but possibly something they've done themselves on several occasions.

sorry if my personal experience is not plausible in your world. But looks like nothing that goes against your one tract thought process is plausible. That's the way the gardai acted too and I assure you, some gardai still act.

Good luck.

I get the impression if he had said he gave it to a passing Saudi tribesman to deliver to the post office by camel someone would be on here saying they know someone that happened to several times.