Lizzie O'Neill (also known as Lily O'Neill and by the alias Honour Bright) was a Dublin woman who was abducted, fatally shot, and dumped at Ticknock, County Dublin, Ireland in an alleged honour killing and act of vigilantism in June of 1925.[1][2][3] The investigation was an early test for the newly established Irish Free State and its national police, the Garda Síochána, which eventually arrested and charged a Garda Superintendent and a rural physician with kidnapping and murder. Even though both men were acquitted, a plaque now stands in Ticknock marking the incident.[4]
Before her death
editLizzie O'Neill lived in the Liberties area of Dublin and worked as a prostitute near St Stephen's Green.[1][2] It is thought that she may originally have been from Carlow.[5] She worked in Pyms, a clothing shop, but after having a child out of wedlock became unemployed.[6] Frank Duff visited a house she was staying at while doing charitable work for the Legion of Mary.[6]
Witness statements
editOne of O'Neill's associates said that a man had paid her and told her that he had been robbed of eleven pounds and a silver cigarette case earlier that evening.[1] He was angry and said he was armed.[1] He asked the woman's help in finding the thief and indicated that a man in a nearby car was a friend who was a superintendent in the Garda Síochána and would round up prostitutes if the thief was not found.[1] Another woman said she saw O'Neill and a different lady with two men in a grey sports car outside the Shelbourne Hotel.[1]
The last sighting of O'Neill that evening was of her getting into a car with two men at Leonard's Corner on the South Circular Road, Portobello, Dublin.[2] She was found dead the next morning from a gunshot wound.[2] The car was traced to a Dr. Patrick Purcell of Blessington, County Wicklow who admitted being in Dublin on the evening in question with Garda Superintendent Leo Dillon.[1]
Trial
editThe trial began on 30 January 1926.[1] There was great interest partly due to the status of the accused.[2] The defence argued that two witnesses, a taxi driver and a Garda constable, were lying.[1] The jury acquitted the accused on the grounds that there was sufficient doubt.[1][2]
Purcell emigrated to England due to difficulties with people in Blessington after the acquittal.[1]
See also
edit
Honour killings in the British Isles:
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Blain, Emma (5 June 2008). "An Honour Killing". Evening Herald. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f Luddy, Maria (2007). Prostitution and Irish Society, 1800-1940. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521709057. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
- ^ "The Murder of Lily O'Neill, known as Honor Bright, in 1925".
- ^ "An Honour Killing". independent. 5 June 2008. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
- ^ "The Murder of Lily O'Neill, known as Honor Bright, in 1925".
- ^ a b Curtis, Maurice (2015). To Hell or to Monto. The History Press Ireland Ltd. ISBN 9780750964760. Retrieved 23 July 2015.