Sophie: A Murder in West Cork - Netflix.

I find it a bit weird that anybody would actually believe there exists such an entity as a Banshee. It was the cry of a fox. An eerie sound right enough, commonly heard in the countryside. Who were this "other German couple"?

This is complete guff. Mistakes can occur in any investigation. There was no deliberate fit-up on the part of the Gardai here and there is no clear evidence to contradict that assertion. Bailey was looming large in everybody's mind as a likely suspect. I think we all can understand why. The fact that he was arrested and questioned and then released on two separate occasions does not constitute a breach of his civil rights. The cops had strong reason to believe he did it and brought him in. Fair enough, I say. Where is the corrupt practice evident there? Bear in mind, none of us knows the full extent of the information and evidence gathered during the early stages of the investigation. Given what we do know, far,far greater evidence exists pointing toward Bailey's guilt that that which exists pointing toward a corrupt or malicious investigation process concocted in order to convict him at all costs.

On the Bandon tapes it was established that members of AGS discussed altering witness statements.

The DPP (actually three different ones over time) was not prepared to press charges against Bailey.

GSOC was prepared to press charges against the Guard in charge of the Jobs Book - but he was deceased.

Deliberately removing pages from the Jobs Books is not a 'mistake'.

This in the same Guard, recorded on the Bandon tapes as saying:

Liam Hogan, now deceased, also talks about going back to "fill in" statements

And:

"I know but it's in the statement, it has to be taken f*****g out of it."

GSOC doesn't consider that corruption apparently.

Well I do.

We only have the Bandon Tapes through unusual circumstance.

Like Maurice McCabe, if it hadn't been recorded, no one would credit it.

This is only the tip of the iceberg.

Are you one of these who subscribes to the folly that it was a member of AGS in the car with Farrell and the whole thing is a cover-up to sheild a member of AGS as the murderer ?

That's complete bollix if you ask me.

If she and the Gardai were protecting a member why did she send others on a wild goose chase with the names of a taekwondo teacher and a dead man ?

Why did she walk out of court and head to the railway station rather than give the name under oath ?

Farrell is a completely unreliable witness.

She is so full of s**t it's unbelievable.

She has something wrong with her that she wanted to become part of all this that she made up a story about that night.

And it backfired on her so spectacularly that she no longer lives anywhere Schull and can never return.

As for the fiesta car. That was ruled out as not being the same type of car that Sophie drove.

If there really was a grand Gardai conspiracy to protect a Garda who committed the murder how would that work?

How could it be kept quiet for a quarter century?

It's not as of this is some obscure case that few know about, this is as high profile a case has ever been seen in this country.

But somehow they have managed to keep the conspiracy going through multiple generations of Gardai.

I'm not suggesting that the Gardai have been impeccable in this case.

They had a prime suspect but could never nail him, and they got frustrated as time went on and some of that frustration was a result of their early mistakes in the case, that's why they tried stunts like they did.

But listen to the West Cork podcast.

There is a part where a Garda says something like "if he heard the wailing of her poor parents in the morgue that Christmas morning....".

The "he" he was referring to was Bailey .

I can't remember if he said it to the podcast or whether it was on an excerpt from the Bandon Tapes, but he said it with real feeling, and compassion for Sophie and her family.

He did not say it like some who was saying it just to say it, knowing full well that he was covering up for one of his own.

But the thing about conspiracies is that the more than know about the cover up the harder it is to keep the cover up.

How many Gardai would have to be in on it, quite a few, Schull, Bandon, Cork city, the ones that came down from Dublin ?

You can't keep that secret amoung that many for 25 years in a high profile case.

We have not heard a dikie bird about it being a Garda from any reliable source all these years.

It's not plausible.

In the media

Podcasts, articles, tv shows etc

Plenty have been out about the case over the years, but none ever suggested a Garda being responsible.

A lot of things are not plausible about this case.

Regarding police corruption, I don't think it went all the way up to Dublin. I mean, it could have, but thinking positively, I don't think so, because if so, the whole Irish Guarda would be a bunch of criminals themselves. A country like Ireland could certainly not afford this, especially if they want to attract international investment.

Dublin police was most likely to certainly not into any drug activity by some bent Guards in South West Ireland, nor would they have been interested in accepting the incompetence those Guards portrayed during the whole investigation. It would have to have been something local in my opinion, Schull, Bandon, but certainly not Cork or Dublin.

It would have to have been down to one or two Guards, coercing others, for whatever reason or motive we don't know or can only speculate about. Suppose the local Guards or one or two of them were in on drug trafficking, things would have been noticed. Sudden extraordinary expenses, new and expensive cars, a property purchase without financing. Especially in rural Ireland where everyone knows everyone else this would have stood out, and looking at how incompetent the Guards behaved in the investigation, I don't think none of them were wise, experienced or capable to funnel and later on hide dirty drug money to some secret bank account in Switzerland. And bent Guards who have an extra income out of drug trafficking certainty don't drive Ford Fiestas.

In light of these thoughts this would all point towards that particular bent Guard from Bantry killing Sophie for a sexual motive and then having enough internal knowledge of the structure of the local police force to either coerce others to play along or put pressure on somebody even to frame somebody if need be. Also, a sexual motive like this doesn't leave a paper or money trail.

And for whatever reason, we don't know Marie Farrell could be coerced, same as Martin Graham, but not Leo Bolger or Alfie Lions. And I am sure, the local Guards had more than enough on Leo or Alfie to coerce them into whatever favours they needed....

We also don't know who pressured the Guards to solve this case and frame somebody if necessary. Was it to deviate from something? If so from what? Drugs? Sex?

What I mean, is what would have happened or what would the public or the media have thought if the Guards explored every possible avenue of the crime in detail but still gotten nowhere? I'd say it's better to have an unsolved crime and every possibility explored than a very obvious case of police incompetence and corruption to frame somebody by all means.