Jane Fenlon and Sarah Maguire's new book all about Early Modern Kilkenny available now in all good bookshops and at www.fourcourtspress.ie! 📚
New title available now⚖ Barristers in Ireland is UCD College of Social Sciences and Law Professor Niamh Howlin's new book all about the history of lawmakers in Ireland. You can pick up your copy at www.fourcourtspress.ie now!
A new Four Courts Press book forms the basis for a forthcoming major feature-length drama documentary .... The Queen v Patrick O'Donnell is a gripping true tale of murder mystery, courtroom drama and political intrigue.
Patrick O’Donnell shot and killed the leader of the Invincibles responsible for the Phoenix Park Murders, James Carey, on a ship on the high seas off the coast of South Africa in 1883.
How did the quiet-spoken labourer from the Donegal Gaeltacht cross paths with the informer whose evidence led to the hanging of five of his erstwhile comrades and the imprisonment of ten more? What circumstances possessed O’Donnell to reach for his gun and shoot Carey? Who was the mysterious young woman who accompanied O’Donnell and introduced as his wife?
Meticulously researched, The Queen v Patrick O’Donnell draws on court transcripts, official records from archives in Ireland, Britain, South Africa and America and many other sources, to reveal for the first time the full story behind one of the most compelling murder stories in Irish history.
A British Home Office file closed to public scrutiny for over 100 years offers a new insight which will radically change attitudes to the trial of O’Donnell in the Old Bailey. He was subsequent hanged in Newgate prison despite pleas for clemency for many luminaries, including the US President and the French writer Victor Hugo.
His death brought Patrick O’Donnell fame as a national hero who was seen as an avenging angel who killed a traitor. His story was recounted in ballads and folksongs, the social media of that era.
The TV drama-documentary based on this book and produced by ROSG for TG4 will have its first film festival screening in Ireland at the Galway Film Fleadh between 20th-25th July. It’s also entitled The Queen v Patrick O’Donnell.
