Family fulfil Ian Bailey's last wish to have his ashes spread in west Cork

Sunday World

7 hours ago

Bailey collapsed and died from a heart attack while out walking in Bantry on January 21, 2024.
THE family of Ian Bailey (66) held a special memorial ceremony to spread his ashes in his beloved west Cork - a place they said he adored above all others.
The memorial was led today by Mr Bailey's sister, Kay Reynolds, who said her brother adored the area above all others and his family felt it was appropriate that his final resting place should be by Roaringwater Bay.
"We wanted to do right by Ian," she explained.
"He absolutely loved west Cork with a passion. There was the (European Arrest) warrant which meant he could not leave the country but he said he would not want to be anywhere else.
Ian Bailey was the chief suspect for the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Photo: Getty
"It was very appropriate that this is where we spread his ashes. It is something he wanted. It came up in conversation with him."
His family said he spent the bulk of his adult life in the area around Schull and it had inspired much of his prose and poetry.
Mr Bailey collapsed and died from a heart attack while out walking in Bantry on January 21, 2024.
The Manchester-born journalist and poet was the chief suspect in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier (39) murder investigation.
Ms du Plantier, a French film executive, had tried to flee from an intruder at her home but was caught and savagely beaten to death on December 22/23, 1996.
British journalist Ian Bailey. Photo: Collins
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Mr Bailey had reported on the killing for Irish, British and French newspapers before becoming a Garda suspect.
Ms Reynolds said she believes the stress her brother was under from being wrongly associated with the crime for almost 30 years took a toll on his health.
"Without question - I don't think there would be any doubt about that,' she said.
"He had been quite fit until the last couple of years. It finally got to him. He was not taking care of himself but it was all to do with the pressure. It had been relentless for almost 30 years. It took its toll on him.
"There were times he did not help himself. I think if he had kept quiet it would have been better but that was not Ian's style.
"He had nothing to hide and he would not hide. He confronted his challengers face on."
Ms Reynolds said her brother was a hugely talented journalist - and regularly obtained details on stories that other journalists did not.
She said she believes his abilities as an investigative journalist most likely brought him to Garda notice because of the information he obtained about the case.
"Garda felt there were things that only somebody involved in the crime would have known. I don't think that helped,' she said.
"But as a family we never thought that he had done this. That was Ian's style of journalism - in Gloucester he did stuff about GCHQ that other journalists didn't. He thought outside the box.
"I think that was what happened there and became his downfall. That is how he became a suspect.
"From the moment he told us - he phoned us to let us know we would start to see things in the paper about him - we never doubted him that he had been involved in this."
Ms Reynolds stressed that her family have enormous sympathy for the du Plantier family and what they have gone through over the past 29 years.
"This is not to forget that a very young mother was brutally murdered. I feel so sorry for the family because of the misguided belief that Ian committed the murder they have just had so many years of torture,' she said.
"I just wish them peace around this. Hopefully the cold case will throw up something that will be of help to them.'
The ceremony was attended by around 40 people including members of the legal profession who had worked with Mr Bailey, journalists and local friends.
Mr Bailey, a freelance journalist, 'New Age' gardener and wood turner, collapsed and died while out walking on Barrack Street in Bantry.
He was pronounced dead before he could be transferred to Bantry General Hospital with his collapse coming just weeks after he had suffered a series of heart attacks.
Mr Bailey died just one week before his 67th birthday, having been warned before Christmas that he needed to get stronger before doctors would proceed with planned bypass and stent surgery.
His remains were cremated in a private ceremony at the Island Crematorium in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork, with the arrangements handled by an undertaker from outside west Cork.
Ms Reynolds is Mr Bailey's next of kin and gave evidence in 2015 during his High Court action for wrongful arrest against the State as to the impact on her brother of the French arrest warrant and his inability to leave Ireland even to visit his dying mother.
Mr Bailey's long-time solicitor, Frank Buttimer, who attended the memorial service, said he remained convinced that Mr Bailey "had nothing whatsoever to do with this crime".
He also said he was convinced that being wrongly associated with the crime for so many years "was a major factor in his ill health'.
Award-winning Irish film director Jim Sheridan (74) produced a Sky TV documentary, 'Murder at the Cottage,' on the Toormore killing.
He got to know Mr Bailey during the years of its production.
The documentary series was launched in 2021, the same year as a major Netflix series on the murder.
Mr Sheridan has previously insisted that all his research led him to believe that Sophie was killed by someone she knew.
"I genuinely believe the answer to the murder will be found in France,' he said.
"My conclusion is that in many ways Ian Bailey has been punished for this crime. He has been marked down as a killer for over 25 years and found guilty in a French courtroom, so he has suffered, even if he never faced a jury in a criminal case."
Mr Bailey was arrested twice by gardaí in 1997 and 1998 for questioning in respect of Sophie's murder.
He was released without charge on both occasions and has vehemently protested his innocence for the past 27 years.
No one has ever been charged in relation to Sophie's death in Ireland.
Mr Bailey sued eight Irish and British newspapers for libel in 2003 after claiming he was branded as the murderer.
He also took an action - which he lost - against the State for wrongful arrest in 2014/15.
After an eight year French investigation, he was prosecuted for Sophie's murder at a Paris trial in May 2019 and convicted of her murder.
He was sentenced to 25 years in prison - but had to be tried in absentia after he refused to attend the French hearing which he dismissed as "a show trial" and "a mockery of justice".
Mr Bailey warned the Irish Independent in April 2019 that he was "being bonfired".
The French failed on three separate occasions since 2010 to have Mr Bailey extradited to France.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) studied the Garda case file but ruled out any charges in 2000/2001 citing lack of evidence.
A Garda cold case review is currently underway and has continued despite Mr Bailey's death.
The Garda investigation into Sophie's death has been open and active over the past 28 years.
It is planned that a revised and updated file will be submitted to the DPP.
The campaign group which secured the French prosecution of Mr Bailey for Sophie's murder vowed to continue their campaign to secure justice for the mother-of-one despite his death 18 months ago.
ASSOPH, the association for the truth about the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, vowed that they will continue to campaign amid hope that "new elements" will finally reveal the precise circumstances of the death of the French film executive in the early hours of December 23, 1996.
Sophie was battered to death as she apparently tried to flee from an intruder at her isolated Toormore holiday home - running over fields before her clothing snagged on barbed wire allowing the killer to catch her.
ASSOPH claimed that Mr Bailey had "taunted" the police over the past three decades - and claimed that the Irish judicial authorities never wanted to extradite him to France despite three attempts to do so since 2010.
"On January 21, 2024, Ian Bailey passed away, 27 years after the horrific murder committed in Ireland against Sophie Toscan du Plantier, born Bouniol," they said.
"The Paris Criminal Court sentenced him in absentia on May 31, 2019, to 25 years in prison for murder.
"Despite this trial and France's repeated requests for his extradition, Ian Bailey remained free, never facing charges from the Irish justice system.
"With Bailey's death, Sophie's family and our association will never be able to obtain a confession from Ian Bailey.
"We continue our efforts for truth and justice. An investigation is underway in Ireland, and we are confident that the discovery of new elements, the hearing of new witnesses, and the revelation of possible complicity will enable Irish police to close the case, years after the murder."