Before the sun had even risen on the morning of Christmas Eve, 1995 Julia O'Brien was discovered dead on the floor in her home in Drimoleague, Co Cork.

Julia was well known locally, as was her problem with alcohol but no one would have thought that the 46 year married mother of five would die after a severe beating and strangulation.

What had happened?

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Theme Music:

Quinn’s Song: The Dance Begins Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Additional Music: Allemande (Sting) by Wahneta Meixsell. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Sources:

“Accused said to have admitted blows” in The Irish Times(13 November 1998) p. 4.

“Man ‘admitted he pushed wife’” in The Irish Times(14 November 1998) p. 4.

Rita O’Reilly, “Wife drove husband to hit her, court told” in The Irish Independent (14 November 1998) p. 4.

Rita O’Reilly, “Murder charge husband of ‘low intelligence’” in The Irish Independent (17 November 1998) p. 10

“Man on murder charge ‘of dull intelligence’” in The Irish Times (17 November 1998) p. 4.

“Murder trial at closing stages” in The Evening Herald(18 November 1998) p. 22

Rita O’Reilly, “Husband not guilty of murdering wife” in The Irish Independent (18 November 1998) p. 15.

Rita O’Reilly, “Sons gave mother an ‘appalling battering’” in The Irish Independent (19 November 1998) p. 6.

Rita O’Reilly, “Manslaughter charge on father ‘preposterous’” in The Irish Independent (20 November 1998) p. 13.

“Defence sums up in case of Cork men accused of killing woman” in The Irish Times (20 November 1998) p. 6.

“Son convicted of killing mother” in The Irish Independent (21 November 1998) p. 1

Ralph Riegel, “Alcohol was tragic curse that led to Julia’s death” in The Irish Independent (21 November 1998) p. 9

Rita O’Reilly, “Son convicted of killing mother as father freed” in The Irish Independent (21 November 1998) p. 9.

“Convicted sons have sentences suspended” in The Evening Herald (15 December 1998) p. 2

Suzanne MacManus, “Suspended sentence for mother’s death” in The Irish Independent (16 December 1998) p. 8

“Sentence foe man who strangled mother to death on Christmas Eve suspended” in The Irish Times (16 December 1998) p. 2.

Ralph Riegel, “Sons for graveside contrition” in The Evening Herald (17 December 1998) p. 33.