New book lifts the lid on some of North Cork’s darkest deeds
AS a society we all too often view the crime of murder as something of a modern trend and look back at ‘ the good old days’ with somewhat rose-coloured spectacles.
However, it may come as a surprise to people to discover that throughout Irish history, murder is not quite as uncommon as they may think.
In fact, the North Cork region has seen more than its share of nefarious activity over the years, and from Mitchelstown to Meelin and from Kildorrery to Kanturk, if you delve back through the years, you will find there is a murder location only a few miles away.
An intriguing self-published new book by Cork author Peter O’Shea recalls 37 of those murders, taking readers on a fascinating journey through what has hitherto been a largely unexplored underbelly of North Cork’s history.
‘Murder Most Local – Historic
Murders of North Cork’ is the follow up to Peter’s previous work in which he recalled dark deeds carried out in the east of the county.
“While researching the book about East Cork I was almost inevitably drawn into interesting cases in the northern area of the county. After researching the first few stories I wanted more,” said Peter.
He said that, regardless of the location, the motives behind the vast majority of the murders he has chronicled in both books have not changed much over the years.
“While each story is completely different and unique in its own way, the root causes behind many of them are all too familiar – love, sex drink and disputes over land that got out of hand,” he said. “Often cases are long forgotten, especially among the families concerned, who may not even be aware of them in the first place. It was often the case that, through my research using old court reports, newspaper clippings and even family trees, I ended up knowing more about the circumstances behind the murders than the relatives of those involved. Sometimes when visiting North Cork for my research, I was told ‘ we don’t talk about that here’, which served to spur me on even more.”
Cases contained within Peter’s latest volume include the 1848 murder of Doneraile woman Johanna Murphy, the infamous 1881 ‘Captain Moonlight’