115 - Flawed Relationships: The killing of Julia O'Brien

Mens Rea: A true crime podcast

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Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2022

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

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? ********* Find us on Facebook or Twitter! With thanks to our supporters on Patreon! Donate today to get access to bonus and ad-free episodes! Check out the Mens Rea Merch Store! ********* 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/ ********* 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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to The Men's Rhea Podcast, and this is the story of Julia O'Brien.
0:30.0	In the early hours of Christmas Eve, 1995, an argument broke out at a family home in
0:45.7	High Street, Dremelake in Westcork. Early reports were that neighbors rang our
0:51.5	D just after half past four that morning, and when they arrived on the scene, 46
0:56.9	year old Julia O'Brien was found dead in her home, having suffered a number of stab wounds.
1:03.9	Julia was a tall, slim and good-looking woman with one report or noting that she had been
1:09.3	known locally as the Lady in Red. Her husband was Joe O'Brien. He was a stone mason employed
1:16.2	at a local monumental works making headstones. Together, the couple had five children, four
1:22.3	sons and one daughter, all aged between 18 and 23. According to Jody Corcoran writing
1:29.8	for the Sunday Independent, the incident in Julia's High Street home had occurred after
1:34.6	she had been out in the pub that night, the 23rd of December. It was also revealed that
1:39.9	Julia had a problem with alcohol and was often found in one or other of the village's pubs,
1:45.7	a problem that the family had struggled to deal with, and that was widely known in the
1:50.8	small community. In Corcoran's reporting, the timeline of events had Julia's daughter,
1:56.7	18-year-old Mariam, returning home at around 5 a.m. having been at a dance in Dunmanway,
2:03.3	to find her mother lying face down on the sitting-room floor, obviously gravely injured. Finding
2:09.2	her mother in such a state Mariam had ran from her home, screaming, and to a neighbor's
2:14.2	house. Soon after, a doctor, a priest, and the guardee all arrived on the scene. Mariam
2:20.6	was the youngest of the children and was repeating her leaving certificate that year.
2:25.8	Words spread quickly in the small town that something awful had happened on Christmas Eve
2:29.7	morning in the O'Brien House. Gardee from the larger town of Banterie had arrived
2:35.8	at the O'Brien home at 5 a.m. that morning and later Mrs. O'Brien's body was removed
	...

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