Beyond Any Reasonable Doubt?: a Book of Irish Murder Trials

by Kenneth E.L. Deale

very good copy, fore edge is age toned.

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1990

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An account from an Irish High Court judge of 10 Irish murder trials that took place between 1924 and 1956. Read about the sexual assault and murder of Ellen O’Sullivan on the 8th of February 1931 in Rathmore in Cork for which David O’Shea was convicted and executed on the 4th of August that same year. Or the murder of Mary Callan at the house of the parish priest in Faughart, near Dundalk on the 16th of May 1927 for which 18 year old Gerard Toal was convicted and executed on the 29th August 1928. Or of the decapitation of Patrick O’Leary at Kilkerrin in County Cork for which his brother Con was executed on 28 July 1925 and his sister Hannah was imprisoned for life (discrimination! No, wait, it favours the woman so it’s fine). Or the murder of Ellen Fleming at Drumcondra in Dublin on 26 July 1933 for which her husband John was executed on 5 January 1934. Or of the death of Verena Ball at 23 St. Helen’s Road in Booterstown on the 18 February 1936 for which her son was imprisoned in Dundrum mental hospital and from where he engaged in the correspondence that led to the famous historian Richard Cobb to write his book A Classical Education. Or the unbelievable murder of 6 people at a house, La Mancha, in Malahide on 31 March 1926 for which the gardener Henry McCabe, with no apparent motive other than, perhaps, fear of losing his job or petty robbery, was executed on the 9th December that year.

All fascinating cases and presenting a real slice of Irish history, the poverty of the time, the importance of land, and a very interesting explanation of the law and dynamics of criminal trials. Another interesting point, though not noted in the book, is that one of the barristers mentioned frequently as acting for prosecution (of Toal and Henry McCabe among others), Dudley White KC, also turns up in James Joyce’s Ulysses.

[Endija Grigorjeva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could never be a lawyer why is law related lingo like a different language