On the morning of March 31st 1926, a local gardener from the La Mancha estate in Malahide ran into town screaming out for help. The house, set in thirty acres of good farmland, was on fire, and the six occupants - four brothers and sisters, their domestic servant, and the farm hand - were still inside. The Gardai, Ireland's police force, were alerted and together with local firefighters they rushed into the scene to quell the flames and save the owners. But as the flames finally began to subside, the bodies of all six occupants were found throughout the house. As Gardai closed off the scene, something wasn't right about what they were seeing. James, the farm hand, had what appeared to be defensive wounds on his forearms and a deep wound on his skull. The bodies of the brothers and sisters were so badly burned that they were nearly indistinguishable from each other. But right beside one of the brothers, Peter McDonnell, was a fire poker. And at its tip plain for all to see was the undeniable look... of brain matter.
Something more than a simple but tragic house fire was going on here in what became the largest mass murder of political violence in the history of the Irish state. And if that wasn't significant enough, the state was only five years old - and only four years ago were brothers in arms engaged in a horrible and bloody civil war whose scares still affect Irish politics to this day. What possibly could have transpired at La Mancha for this to happen? This is a story with plenty of twists and turns that you're going to want to get your detective's hat and notepad out, and see if you can figure out the events of the La Mancha Murder Mystery.
This episode was presented by Conor Daly and joined by Arron Keegan and Hayley O'Connor. The intro and outro music - Strollin' Along - was recorded by David Renda. Make sure to follow us on social media! Just search for "That's Old News" on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter/X, or head to the linktree in the podcast's about section!
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Chapters:
(00:00) Coming Up This Week
(00:55) Intro
(02:52) La Mancha, the McDonnell Family, and Henry McCabe
(10:28) The House Fire, and the Murder Mystery Begins
(24:02) The Investigation Begins
(32:52) Arrest, Trial, Execution, and Aftermath
(48:55) Post Show Banter
