Assassins in the Park Murder Betrayal and Retribution

[Inger Sheil]

Not a Titanic book, but one by a Titanic author/historian...

I see Amazon is now taking pre-orders for Senan's latest work - his much anticipated tome on the Phoenix Park murders in 1882 (although I gather that the cover will be improved on the early-issue one that Amazon is using!).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/185635511X/qid%3D1140394866/203-5489228-0263909

I've read the MS, and found it enthralling. As I mentioned to the author, my copy is still dropping sand from the pages from when I took it down to the beach to finish perusing. A very even-handed look at these politically charged events, combined with a story of detective work and court-room drama; Molony puts his extensive experience as a court room reporter to excellent use as he relates the emotionally charged scenes during the trials of the perpetrators.

I was surprised at how similar the Phoenix Park described in the book is to the Park today - the scenes were very familiar from my own visits there, and coupled with Senan's graphic descriptions, it was easy to 'see' the action in the minds eye.

A fascinating tale that goes from the forensic details of the criminal investigation all the way through to intense and human scenes of betrayal and revenge. The overarching influence and echoes of matters such as the Land League debates and boycotting shed interesting light on the seminal issues of this period in Irish history.

Needless to say, highly recommended.

 

[Shelley Dziedzic]

Congratulations on the upcoming opus, Senan! Murder- now you're talking! What would it take to get you over here to solve the Borden case?

 

[Senan Molony]

Oops, rumbled in my secret life... Don't tell You-Know-Who or we'll be here 'til Kingdom come! (or United Kingdom come?)

Anyway, Shelley, I don't know much about the Borden case, although I would have hated to be her defence lawyer. I think I may have a garbled recollection of events -

Dick Cheney took a gun
Gave his lawyer time to run
Then he gave him 40 whacks -
In one fell swoop, which doesn't tax
Unlike Miss Borden with her axe
Whose drooping arms must soon relax
From sheer fatigue of all her hacks...
Which proves our effort must sometimes fail
When hunting family, friends or quail.

Would that be about right?

 

[Shelley Dziedzic]

Yes, that about covers the high points. Some no doubt, would have supported shooting for Quayle in years gone by and given Cheney a medal for bagging a bird.

Lizzie's defense attorney actually had a cakewalk. Being the former governor of the state of Massachusetts, appointing one of the three sitting judges to the bench, having the jury stacked with tender-hearted old men who had winsome Lizzie-like daughters at home knitting, and having the sympathy of the suffragettes, most of Fall River socialites, plus getting one huge payday made Mr. Robinson the man to be envied. It was the poor prosecutor who tore out his hair nightly. All proving of course, that occasionally crime does pay.

 

[Senan Molony]

>>shooting for Quayle in years gone by<<

Although stoning to death by 'potatoe' might have been more poetic.

(But here I draw the line at verse. For fear of composing something worse.)

Actually, this book on the assassinations in the Phoenix Park was a lot of fun. Although most of the action was on terra firma, I still managed to name about a dozen ships, provide readers with one key longitude/latitude position (whether they wanted it or not), and linger lovingly on a graphic shipboard murder - albeit one that happened off the course of South Africa.

You will have to write the "Lizzie on Titanic" book, Shelley. That one hasn't been done yet - although perhaps there was a certain 'homage' in Cameron's movie in re axe-and-handcuffs ???

Deep.

 

[Shelley Dziedzic]

Shipboard Murder- how timely! Still front page news. There's already been a Lizzie and Sherlock Holmes literary pairing. Lizzie made the Grand Tour in 1890 aboard Scythia with ladyfriends, and the Borden's hapless Irish maid came from Ireland to her rendez-vous with notoriety aboard the Republic. There's just got to be a juicy book in all of this somewhere.

 

[Senan Molony]

Bridget Sullivan, yes - and there was one on the Titanic too.

Which is the best Borden book, Shelley? I was thinking of ordering the David Kent one, "Forty Whacks" (I imagine lots of Borden books have that in the title.)

Is there a better one?

 

[Shelley Dziedzic]

I may be slightly prejudiced as the author is a good friend! This took 8 years to write and is the most comprehensive effort I have ever seen. All data- NO opinions.Victoria Lincoln's A Private Disgrace is well-done- but offers temporal lobe epilepsy as the cause, which I find hard to swallow.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0967073901/ref=cm_cr_dp_pt/002-2501911-6759226?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

 

[Shelley Dziedzic]

The Sourcebook is also excellent.
http://www.campusi.com/keyword_Lizzie_Borden.htm
I think we may have fodder for a collection of bloody versicles with some ship references thrown in for good measure. Murder Afloat sounds catchy. What say ye, Captain? We have all the Past from which to choose and a particularly hot case currently about a Connecticut honeymoon couple where the groom went missing mid-ocean.

 

[Noel F. Jones]

...and linger lovingly on a graphic shipboard murder - albeit one that happened off the course (sic) of South Africa."

'Parry the Informer' I presume? The Melrose as I recall; I do believe the spent bullet remained in the panelling of the saloon door.

Noel

 

[Senan Molony]

Carey.

Parry is a Welsh name, like Jones.

Gee, Shelley, those books you recommend start at $193 or so....

I wouldn't like to be keeping you in shoes!

 

[Shelley Dziedzic]

Ah, that's because the printing run was limited. Originally the price was $49.00 at the debut in 2000, but as inventory dwindled, the price quadrupled. So I guess the lesson here is, make oneself scarce! There is a plan afoot for a revised edition-who knew there was so much clever calculation in the printing world?

 

[Noel F. Jones]

"Parry is a Welsh name, like Jones."

And Griffiths presumably. And I do believe there was a Jones in that GPO in 1916...

Noel

 

[Senan Molony]

Yes, we took him prisoner.

 

[Noel F. Jones]

And all the poor sod was trying to do was post a letter...

 

[Senan Molony]

Aha - so it's Jones the Post!

You can't get much more Welsh than that.

 

[Mindy Deckard]

Senan Molony-

I don't know where else to post this but I used your primary source book in my sixth grade history class. The students loved looking at it.
They were actually mad that I had to return it to the library.

Great book!

Melinda

 

[Senan Molony]

This is the new cover for the book, which is no longer called Assassins in the Park, for all you (like Noel) who were going to rush out and buy it ...Not!

For a couple of murders that happened in a park, it sure managed to name a lot of ships. About 14, I think.

There is also at least one longitude and latitude position for the southern oceans that the unwitting reader will be forced to digest.

 

[Inger Sheil]

Much more effective cover, Sen. Looks reminiscent of contemporary crime fiction novels, which works well with the detective/CSIesque elements of the story. I quite liked 'Assassins in the Park', but can see why a nice juicy word like 'murder' is hard to pass up in a title!

Still scheduled for July release?

 

[Inger Sheil]

Now that we've established that there are a LOT of ships in this book, here's the media release from Mercier Press:

quote:

The most infamous crime of the Nineteenth century

The Phoenix Park Murders
Conspiracy, Betrayal and Retribution
Senan Molony


A gripping true story of assassination, conspiracy, intrigue, executions and revenge.

0n May 06, 1882, the top two British government officials in Ireland are assassinated by men wielding deadly surgical knives while the pair are walking in the Phoenix Park. The killings are witnessed from the Viceregal Lodge, now Aras an Uachtarain, the official residence of her majesty’s representative in Ireland.

One of the dead men is Lord Frederick Cavendish — who is married to the niece of the prime minister, William Ewart Gladstone. The other man is Thomas Henry Burke, the head of the Irish Civil Service, a man denounced by Nationalists as the leading ‘Castle Rat’ in the British administration.

The government must solve this crime. But there are no clues. The witness descriptions are inconclusive and the Dublin police do not know where to begin. Forensic evidence is non-existent, and they must try to penetrate the Fenian underworld. But even here no one knows anything because the audacious crime has been carried out by an entirely new group, one styling itself the ‘Irish Invincibles’.

Author Information
Senan Molony lives in Dublin and is a political correspondent with the Irish Independent. Born in Dublin in 1963, he is married with three children. He formerly worked with the Irish Press, Evening Herald, and Star newspapers and has contributed a host of articles to newspapers, magazines and websites in this country and abroad. He is also author of Lusitania, an Irish Tragedy, The Irish Aboard Titanic, and other works.


The Phoenix Park Murders
is published in paperback at €12.99