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by Pat Doran (Author)
During the early afternoon of Saturday the 24th of February 1900, William Symms Bird, a local land agent and Justice of the Peace was shot to death in his office in the market town of Bantry, West Cork, Ireland. Within twenty-four hours a farm labourer named Timothy Cadogan was arrested and charged with the murder of Bird. Following two trials Cadogan was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was hanged in Cork Gaol on the 11th of January 1901, the last person to be hung in the jail.
The damning evidence against Cadogan came from an eyewitness who swore to have seen him come down the stairs from Bird's office with a revolver in his hand. In this book Pat Doran examines all the evidence given at the Magisterial Investigation in to the murder and the following two trials, he then asks a shocking question Did an innocent man go to the gallows while the guilty party hid in plain view?
In 2018 and 2019 President Michael D. Higgins granted two pardons to two men hanged in the late 1800's, Myles Joyce who was hanged in 1882 and John Twiss, hanged in 1895. Is it now time that the name of Timothy Cadogan was included with these innocent men?
