Malcolm Macarthur: the murder of Bridie Gargan

Malcolm Macarthur is one of the Irish prison system's most notorious inmates.

Malcolm Macarthur is one of the Irish prison system's most notorious inmates.

Before his arrest for two murders, Macarthur, the son of a landed Anglo-Irish family in Co Meath, had been an oddball but unremarkable member of Dublin's literary social scene of the 1970s.

Having got into severe money difficulties by the early 1980s, and just after moving to the Canary islands, he returned to Ireland and hatched a bizarre plan to rob a bank.

In July 1982, as part of this plan, he attempted to steal a car in the Phoenix Park, and in the process bludgeoned its owner to death.

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She was Bridie Gargan, a nurse who had been sunbathing in the park.

The murder sparked a nationwide manhunt, which was intensified when he shot a Co Offaly farmer, Donal Dunne, after he travelled there to buy a gun from him. He then stole his car and drove it back to Dublin.

He went to the Dalkey apartment of his friend, the then attorney general, Mr Paddy Connolly, who was totally unaware Macarthur was a wanted man.

When Macarthur was finally arrested at Mr Connolly's home a few weeks later, it sparked a public scandal. Mr Connolly had flown to the US that day to go on holidays but returned home and resigned soon afterwards.