A Land to Die For
Land has been the cause of some of the most vicious feuds and brutal murders in modern Irish history. Often portrayed as the poor tenant farmer against powerful landlords, the real stories were often more complex. In a society where people developed what was an unhealthy obsession with land there were all too many willing to kill friends family and neighbours over it.
EP1/2
This podcast tells a feud over a farm outside the East Cork town of Castletownroche. Taking places in the decades after the famine this dispute resulted in the deaths of four people. Buried for nearly a century and half this story is told for the first time in this two part podcast.
EP2/2
In the last episode (A Land to Die For Part I) we followed the story of William Sheehan. Raised in a community obsessed with land he had become involved in a violent dispute over his family farm after his eviction in 1882. By late 1883 Sheehan, wanting a fresh start, had emigrated to New Zealand. However he could not escape his violent past. Within months of his arrival news reached New Zealand he was wanted for murder in Ireland
This episode reveals who Sheehan had killed and the sensational trial that followed...