Hotel alibi for suspect in Annie McCarrick murder investigation has been withdrawn
Move sparked new inquiries as garda property dig continues
Today at 21:30
An alibi for a man arrested over the murder of Annie McCarrick on the night she disappeared has been withdrawn from the garda investigation.
The Sunday Independent understands a man well-known to a Co Meath-based businessman who was arrested and released without charge told gardaí many years ago that the suspect stayed in a Dublin hotel on the night Ms McCarrick went missing.
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Extra.ie
8 hours ago
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Annie McCarrick: 'Significant excavation' continues in search of suspect's former home
The innocent owners of the Dublin house where gardaí are searching for the remains of American student Annie McCarrick will be compensated for damage to their beautifully renovated family home. The search of the property, which was the chief suspect's family home at the time Ms McCarrick disappeared, has been ongoing and is expected to continue into next week. Sources said the current owners of the property, who purchased the house within the past 15 years and have since moved out for the duration of the search, have transformed it into a large, modern family home. Annie McCarrick. Pic: An Garda Síochána/PA Wire But with gardaí determined to rule it out as a possible burial site, 'significant excavation' work is being carried out. A response to parliamentary queries from former Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy confirmed a total of €217,790 was paid to property owners who had been subject to Garda raids between 2015 and September 2021. The bulk of this, €158,685, was paid out by the SCA. Garda Headquarters handled more minor claims amounting to €59,005. The innocent owners of the Dublin house where gardaí are searching for the remains of American student Annie McCarrick will be compensated for damage to their beautifully renovated family home. Pic: Sam Boal/Collins Photos Last week, revealed gardaí moved to arrest the chief suspect in the McCarrick murder after going to another jurisdiction to speak with a close associate of the man. It is understood this associate provided information to gardaí, which discredited the suspect's alibi for the day Ms McCarrick vanished. The arrest came as detectives worked on the theory that she was murdered by a 'jealous' man who was known to her. In March 2023, revealed a person of 'significant interest' to detectives was identified and that this was why the case was upgraded to a murder investigation at the time. Annie McCarrick. Pic: An Garda Síochána The development came more than 30 years after Ms McCarrick's friends told gardaí they were concerned about the man, who was well known to her. Ms McCarrick's friend, Linda Ringhouse, and her aunt, Maureen Covell, this weekend expressed concern at how gardaí handled the original investigation. 'They botched it,' Ms Covell told the Irish Times. The innocent owners of the Dublin house where gardaí are searching for the remains of American student Annie McCarrick will be compensated for damage to their beautifully renovated family home. Pic: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. 'They admitted it. They didn't listen to the family and did not investigate who we thought was guilty in the very beginning. 'They pooh-poohed a lot and didn't follow up on things they should have. That's no secret. It is all documented. 'And no matter how many times we said there is something wrong, it was: 'Oh, she is off on an adventure and she will turn up'.' Newspaper reports this week quoted Annie McCarrick's mother, Nancy, as saying she had 'no interest' in justice, but her friend and aunt are adamant that the family do want justice. In a social media post in 2022, Ms Ringhouse described Ms McCarrick as her 'first and oldest best friend'. 'She was a force of freedom and adventure so much that she took off to Ireland to live her ultimate dream,' she wrote at the time. 'I remember being jealous of Ireland, in a way, because it was taking her away from us. 'She was a true romantic with a big loving heart. An eloquent, soft-spoken, natural beauty as well as a hilarious, foul-mouthed stunner. She could make you spit your drink out from crazy laughter.' Ms Ringhouse told how she visited Ms McCarrick the month before she went missing. 'I was able to see how happy she was to be there and starting a new life chapter. It's hard to describe losing someone this way. It's a different type of loss and grief. It brings a type of anger and rage that does subside, but can come right back at any moment. 'She is never forgotten among those of us that were lucky to call her a friend.'
Irish Daily Mirror
12 hours ago
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Irish Independent
14 hours ago
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Obituary: Don Buckley, leading journalist who helped expose Garda ‘heavy gang' and Kerry Babies scandal
Born in Cork city on June 15, 1950, he was the first of six children born to Daniel Buckley and his wife Mary. He attended St Patrick's Boys' National School before going on to secondary at the Patrician Academy in Mallow. Like many of his generation he was politically awakened in the 1960s and even at the young age of 13 he refused to eat a tin of peaches because it was from apartheid South Africa. Buckley's schooling was interrupted by ill health but that did not deter him from taking the newly-established course in journalism at the Rathmines College of Commerce in 1970-71. Having contributed freelance articles to The Irish Times, he got a job on the paper as a features sub-editor in 1973. He transferred to the newsroom as a reporter in 1975 where, along with Renagh Holohan who had received information about a garda unit's methods in its investigation of a train robbery at Sallins in 1976, and the late Joe Joyce, he became deeply involved in a special investigation of the so-called 'heavy gang' within An Garda Síochána. There was concern within the force itself about the manner in which crime suspects were being treated, in physical and psychological terms. Two gardaí separately contacted the paper's features editor at the time, Conor Brady with one of them saying: 'The situation is getting out of control.' Encouraged by Gerry Mulvey on the newsdesk, Buckley, Holohan and Joyce launched an in-depth investigation that lasted about six weeks. Publication of their findings in February 1977 was courageously approved by the paper's editor at the time, the late Fergus Pyle. The coverage generated widespread shock and led to restrictions on activities of the gardaí in question, which had a long-term impact on the criminal justice system — although members of the squad always denied the allegations and rejected the 'heavy gang' label. Buckley left The Irish Times in 1979 to help establish Dublin local newspaper Southside where he met Peter Murtagh, who recalled in a comprehensive tribute at last week's funeral: 'For a few years, Don and I were inseparable as he tutored me, schooled me and knocked my natural inquisitiveness into shape as a passable reporter.' Buckley also worked with Vincent Browne as news editor of the Sunday Tribune in 1983. Returning to freelance work, he contributed articles to this newspaper as well as the Observer and the London-based Independent. In 1984, Buckley and Joyce carried out an exposé for the Sunday Independent of the Kerry Babies case where Joanne Hayes was wrongly accused of the murder of a new-born baby found on a beach with a broken neck and 28 stab wounds. In 2020, the State apologised to her for the false accusation and the 'appalling hurt and distress caused' as a result. A Labour Party supporter most of his life, Buckley ran as a candidate in the 1985 local elections in Dublin's north-inner city, against future taoiseach Bertie Ahern of Fianna Fáil and Independent Tony Gregory, who got over 8,000 first preferences between them, compared to Don's modest 226 figure. In 1987 he returned to The Irish Times where he spent the next 15 years. Appointment as a reporter in 1988 was followed by promotion to assistant news editor and later deputy news editor. Buckley held advice sessions with individual journalists at nearby Bewley's Cafe on Westmoreland Street, beginning with the words: 'I'm giving this an hour...' Murtagh, who was also on the staff, recalls: 'Don loved managing the story — getting the first take written, subbed and printed, but holding back a follow-up angle for day two, then engineering another follow-up — maybe getting a politician to comment or having somebody put down a question for the minister. We all learnt from him.' Retiring from The Irish Times due to ill health at the age of 52, Don remained active and, along with Joan Fitzpatrick, set up the bimonthly Irish Property Buyer magazine in 2004 which continued publication until 2008. His final project was to help with Robert O'Byrne's Dictionary of Living Irish Artists, issued in 2010 by Plurabelle Publishing. Don suffered from haemophilia but, as Peter Murtagh said, 'he refused to let illness and its relentless assault on his body define his life'. He died just six days short of his 75th birthday and, predeceased by his brother John, is survived by his sisters Joan, Margaret, Catherine and his brother David.
