Murder at the Cottage | Sky

So the Garda station given the job of investigating the first murder in the area in a very long time had two detectives and only one of them ended up involved in this case, is that correct?

Alfie has an unaccounted for first family living with him in Basil Bush restaurant and spoke several languages. He had been in the US doing we know not what.

My surmise would be not that he was not so much underworld as undercover.

Not quite the first in a long time,

almost a year to the day earlier, Drimoleague is about 20 miles from Sophie's and 9 miles from Bantry;

Maybe this has already been mentioned on this thread but I didnt see this on the podcast or the documentries.

So Ian Bailey approached the crimecall film crew filming on 3 castles head a few weeks after the murder and told them he knew Sophie, he has met her on the 3 castle head walk. Of course Bailey denies saying this (which is a common theme with Ian Bailey) but it makes no sense that the film crew with no agenda against Ian Bailey would just make this story up so i persume Ian Bailey is lying when he says that he didnt say this to the film crew. So by his own admission there is a link between the two.

They were only filming the reconstruction of the murder for crimecall on TV so there wasnt any benefit in it for them.

Possibly he said it to try insert himself with the film crew, pretending he knew more than he did about Sophie but his flat denial of ever even saying it

makes you more inclinded to disbelieve was Ian was saying about other stuff, like his flat denial about what Alfie Lyons said about him meeting Sophie up at this house.

Given Ian's personality and a lot of what he does isnt what most of us would normally do so yeah i 100% believe he would have said it

Bear in mind this was only weeks after the murder before he became a fully fledged suspect so he prob not as carefull about what he was saying.

They probably figure most people who are aware of the 'story' at all probably dismiss it as Gemma O'Doherty conspiracy-mongering. Making a big public statement would only increase awareness of it and perversely add credence to it in some people's eyes.

So, soon after murdering her, he decided - "you know what, I'll get involved in the reenactment and let them all know that I knew the lady I just murdered..."

If anything, Mr Bombastic landing himself into the Crimecall thing is another indication of him being innocent of the murder but guilty of being a massive arse.

It also supports the notion that if he actually did know Sophie well that he would have told the world about it and written at least seven terrible poems about his French dalliance. But not only did he not 'tell the world' he knew her - he told literally nobody, ever!

He didn't know her.

Disagree on two points:

1) If he knew her I think it is reasonably likely (though, yes, not certain) that he would have told somebody - one living soul - in Schull that he had a coffee with her; that he had a debate about postmodernism with her; that he pinched her arse - god knows what, but he very likely IMO would have mentioned it once to somebody... But he didn't. To anybody. Ever.

2) Knowing her doesn't make him guilty I agree, but the case against Bailey is strongly helped by him knowing her - that's why they go on about it so much. If he didn't know her then it's much harder to explain her putting on her boots and going outside to talk to him (or to confront him); it's also far less likely for him to murder somebody he didn't know from Adam - than somebody he had had a relationship (plutonic or otherwise) with.

Well one counter to point one is if he had conceived what he believed was a grand passion for this mysterious French woman on the basis of one or two brief meetings, he had every incentive not to mention it to a soul, to stop it getting back to Jules. Totally out of character for Bailey I know, but men in the grip of infatuation do strange things...

I don't think anyone would have "covered for him" rather told from above to get a conviction on Bailey etc. Very strange JOD didn't investigate. It's also been said there was no reenactment of Martin O Sullivans Fiesta sighting. Is that true?

I'd say coming from a country place, that everyone around would have known her or at least about her. A woman like that with a house overlooking the Ocean! Her comings and goings would be well noted.

I always thought the Randy Bantry Garda was put in the frame by someone with an axe to grind.

They picked GOD to publicise their story and she ran with it.

She was in high anti police corruption mode at the time and she would jump on any story like this .

I don't know what age the man was at the time of the murder, but he died 4 years later.

So maybe this man's name has been sullied like Baileys by someone who hate the Gardaí in general and this Garda in particular

and/or an English blow-in like Bailey.

Not sure if you've missed it but pages and pages back we've fairly authentic claims that he confessed on his deathbed. I bet Jim is working this angle and investigations for season two are well underway.

From Alfie House down to the gate looks to be a fair distance and looks to be out of thier direct line of sight. They may be able to hear a distant scream if Sophie had screamed but if they were fast asleep then seems unlikely it would have been loud enough to wake them.