How The Irish Times covered the Gubu crisis, from July 1982 to January 1983

The following are newspaper clippings from The Irish Times archive on the murders of Bridie Gargan and Dónal Dunne by Malcolm Macarthur in July 1982, the events that led to his arrest, the downfall of an Attorney General, and Macarthur's subsequent imprisonment. To read the pages in detail, click on Expand on the top left hand side of the screen and simply zoom in to the picture.

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The following day, coverage continues on this story, this time on page five. The Irish Times reports the nurse was "unconscious and critically ill in the Richmond Hospital, Dublin" and that gardaí were carrying out "an intensive search for the man, whom they' describe as aged about 23 or 24, 5 ft 8 ins to 5 ft 10 ins in height, with black wavy hair, pale complexion, brown eyes, of good build and with a cultured accent".

News of Bridie Gargan's death is covered on the front page of The Irish Times. She died in Richmond Hospital where she was being treated following the attack six days earlier. The report details Gargan was one of 11 children in a farming family who lived in Dunshaughlin, Co Meath. She had been trained in England and had worked at Blanchardstown and the Richmond Hospitals before transferring to St James's Hospital. The report also details “Detectives were still examining Nurse Gargan's car and taking fingerprints from it. They were also checking mental hospitals in an effort to trace the assailant.”

The following day, Murtagh reports on how the gardaí are stepping up their hunt to find Dónal Dunne’s murderer with 300 garda recruits joining detectives in Co Offaly, and denied newspaper reports that a breakthrough had been made in the search for Bridie Gargan’s killer. The report also noted that “people in Edenderry told gardaí that a stranger between 30 and 40 years old was noticed in the town on Saturday evening. He was seen in the area of the canal and again on Sunday morning at the Post Office where he met Mr Dunne , who thought he was a potential buyer for his double-barrel shotgun".

No reports on the murders are carried in The Irish Times for six days, but on Saturday, August 14th, John Armstrong reports in a front page piece that a man is expected to be charged that day over both Bridie Gargan and Dónal Dunne's murders, after a man (Macarthur) was arrested in Dalkey the previous evening. The report also carries the first mention of Attorney General Patrick Connolly in connection to the murders. The report said Connolly "lives in a flat in the block where the man was arrested" and that he had gone to Dun Laoghaire garda station the day before to speak to detectives.

The lead story in The Irish Times two days later focuses on how then taoiseach Charlie Haughey requested Patrick Connolly return from a US holiday to Dublin immediately, "to clarify how a man who has been charged with two murders came to be staying at his penthouse apartment in Dalkey". The report also names Malcolm Macarthur for the first time, detailing that he has now been charged with the murders of both Bridie Gargan and Dónal Dunne the previous month.

The story continues inside on page six of that day's paper, where Peter Murtagh details how Macarthur had been arrested at Patrick’s Connolly’s home three days previous and then appeared in court on the Saturday looking “dishevelled but was very alert. He spoke in a calm, measured voice and chatted to detectives “. As Macarthur was driven away to Mountjoy Prison, “youths threw clumps of ivy ripped from the wall of a nearby house for a few ugly moments as the car carrying MacArthur was spat at, thumped with fists and people shouted abuse.”

The news is dominated the following day by the resignation of Patrick Connolly after the news that Macarthur had been staying at his penthouse apartment in Dalkey since August 4th up until his arrest. Connolly's statement detailing his friendship with Macarthur is also carried on the front page, as is news that the murderer, now imprisioned awaiting trial, was driven in a State car at least twice before his arrest.

The trail however does not begin until January 1983, and was adjourned a few minutes after it began on Tuesday, January 11th after "the State furnished the defence with certain documents which it was obliged to furnish. The documents were of such a nature that they required the defence to take expert legal advice on them". The page one piece details how the court room was "packed to capacity" with close to 40 reporters, including the British media, present.

Malcolm Macarthur pleaded guilty to the murder of Bridie Gargan and was sentenced to penal servitude for life on January 12th. "The trial, which was expected to last three weeks, ended abruptly after a few minutes following Macarthur's plea of guilty," the report outlines. The front page of the paper also carries background detail on the murderer’s movements in the days before and after he killed Bridie Gargan, and how his wasting of his inheritance led him to commit murder.

Page six of that day's Irish Times is devoted entirely to the Macarthur case, including a profile of the "quiet only son of wealthy Co Meath parents", who, as an adult, and with a £70,000 inheritance, settled in Dublin. He became “well-known among a small group who socialised in Dublin city centre bars. It was a diverse group, where the conventional mixed with the unconventional in search of something different”.

Sat Jun 04 2022 - 00:00

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