Dublin's Darkest Secret | The Notorious Nurse Cadden | Murder and Scandal in 1950s Dublin

Dublin's Darkest Secret | The Notorious Nurse Cadden | Murder and Scandal in 1950s Dublin

At 6:30am on the morning of the 18th April 1956 a milkman named Patrick Rigney made a shocking discovery on the steps leading to the basement of a Georgian town house on Dublin’s Hume Street. Before him lay the body of 33 year old Helen O’Reilly, her legs bound together and a silk stocking tied tightly around her neck. As Rigney tried to make sense of what he was seeing he was startled by a noise that seemed to emanate from the basement below. Fearfully he peered over the wrought iron railings where he saw a woman pressing her back up against the wall and staring back up at him. Rigney left the scene in search of a Garda and the blonde haired woman climbed back up the steps as quickly as her arthritic knees would allow and fled to her cramped and cluttered flat two doors down the street.  How could this have happened again she thought, it was only 5 years since she had dumped Bridget’s body on Hume Street and those poxy detectives had nearly collared her for murder. Mamie Cadden paced up and down in her flat as she frantically concocted a story to tell the guards who were bound to come knocking on her door. It was hardly her fault that those pregnant women had died, she thought, sure they had sought the famous Nurse Cadden out themselves, she was only providing a service the women desperately wanted but which the law strictly forbade. She gathered up her medical equipment and hid it as best she could in the small space and braced herself for what was to come. When Patrick Rigney discovered the body of Helen O’Reilly on Hume Street he exposed an underworld of backstreet medical practitioners that many people knew about but in a deeply conservative 1950s Ireland were practically forbidden from discussing. It set in motion a police investigation and a dramatic trial that would find Mamie Cadden guilty of murder and see her sentenced to death.  From her birth in Scranton Pennsylvania, to her childhood in Mayo and her glory days at her prestigious nursing home in Rathmines where she excelled as an independent business woman in a repressive 1930s Dublin, her multiple convictions and prison terms and her death sentence in a Dublin court room this is the story of one of the most notorious women in Irish history and also the lives of the two women whose bodies were discarded on a Dublin Street.  ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Hanging of John Delahunt "The Teenage Throat Slitter of Dublin City"

Welcome to Obscure Ireland With Peter the history podcast that takes a deep dive into the lesser known stories from Ireland's past and seeks to bring back to life the lives of the people whose stories of murder, defiance and bravery once gripped the nation and filled newspapers for weeks on end but have slowly faded from memory. From long forgotten murders in the 19th century to more modern cases in living memory, I dive into the archives to uncover the true and often forgotten details of the lives of those who came before us. If you enjoy the podcast please be sure to leave a rating on Spotify, Apple or wherever you are listening. It really helps more people discover the show and supports the podcast more than you might think. You can also find Obscure Ireland With Peter on Youtube where I visit the location of each story in person. The Hanging of John Delahunt | A Shocking Tale of Murder, Greed and Lies from 19th Century Dublin, Ireland In 1841 Dublin City was shocked by two brutal murders and a flurry of false accusations, arrests and dramatic trials that were driven by greed and prejudice as a killer continued to roam the streets. This is the disturbing tale of both John Delahunt who was executed for his crimes at Kilmainham Gaol and his innocent victims. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Bang Bang The Story of a Dublin Street Character

The story of Thomas "Bang Bang" Dudley who became the most famous of Dublin's many street characters. Born into poverty and the tenements of early 1900s Dublin Thomas was a beloved character who travelled around the city holding mock shootouts with his famous key while hanging out of the back of trams and buses. This detailed podcast tells the story of his life from his birth in 1906, his beloved home in the liberties and how he became Dublin's answer to John Wayne. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Death in The Dublin Slums

In 1913 Dublin was a city in turmoil. Riddled with relentless poverty and row after row of filthy and dilapidated tenement housing the formerly grand Georgian Streets that had been the playground of the Anglo Irish Ascendency became a death trap for the 1000s of working class families that now lived in overcrowded homes built for the elite landowning overlords of Ireland. Every day the residents of Dublin's tenements faced disease, death and hunger in the eye and the year of 1913 would see their bones broken by the masonry of their decrepit homes and the batons of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. In September of that year two crowded tenement homes crumbled into the crowd killing 7 of their residents. This is the story of that sad day and of the bravery of a young man named Eugene Salmon who gave his life to save his siblings. Irish History by Obscure Ireland With Peter. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Hanging of The Kearney Family

The Hanging of Kearneys | A Miscarriage of Justice? | Dublin in 1816 | Ireland In the early 1800s the peace of Glenasmole Valley was forever broken by the disappearance of a despised land steward who worked on a nearby estate belonging to the powerful Shaw family. One evening John Kinlan walked out into the darkness a mountain laneway and seemingly vanished from the face of the earth. His disappearance led to the arrest of Peter Kearney and his four sons. The body of Kinlan would never be found but despite this the authorities and local landlords contrived to exact a terrible revenge on a rebellious mountain family that would see their lives extinguished by the hangman's rope on the bank of The River Dodder. This is the story of the hanging of the Kearneys of Piperstown, a family who rebelled with the United Irishmen and gave sanctuary to Robert Emmet, the powerful land owning families who sought to make an brutal example of them and a hated magistrate and landlord who himself was destined to meet a brutal end. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.