47 - Family Secrets: The death of Brian McGrath

Mens Rea: A true crime podcast

GoLoud

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2019

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

In 1987, Brian McGrath disappeared. His wife, Vera, said he'd gone to Holland to find work. That he was abusive and delusional. But 6 years later, their eldest daughter Veronica told police that her mother, and her fiance at the time, had beaten Brian McGrath to death and buried and burned his body at their home in Coole, Co. Westmeath. Who murdered Brian McGrath? Find us on Facebook or Twitter! With thanks to our supporters on Patreon! 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: Barry Cummins, The Cold Case Files: on the trial of Ireland's undetected killers (Dublin: Gill and McMillan, 2012) Purchase here Sandra Mara, Dead Men Talk (Dublin: Poolbeg Press, 2016) Purchase here Veronica McGrath (with Yvonne Kinsella), Witness to Evil (Dublin: Hachette Books, 2011) Purchase here DPP v Vera McGrath [2013] IECCA 12 “Vera McGrath gets 18 months for helping dispose of husband” in The Irish Times https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/vera-mcgrath-gets-18-months-for-helping-dispose-of-husband-1.1821924 (5 June 2014) “Vera McGrath sentenced to 18 months for helping to dispose of husband's body” in The Irish Independent https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/vera-mcgrath-sentenced-to-18-months-for-helping-to-dispose-of-husbands-body-30333389.html (5 June 2014) “McGrath sentenced for helping to dispose husband's body” from RTE.ie https://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0605/621781-vera-mcgrath/ (5 June 2014) “McGrath convicted of murdering husband in cold case trial” in The Irish Examiner https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/mcgrath-convicted-of-murdering-husband-in-cold-case-trial-466911.html (26 July 2010) Natasha Reid, “McGrath told gardai 'I helped beat and bury my husband'” in The Evening Herald https://www.herald.ie/news/mcgrath-told-gardai-i-helped-beat-and-bury-my-husband-27956419.html (9 July 2010) Brian Kavanagh, “First cold case murder verdict is overturned” in The Evening Herald https://www.herald.ie/news/courts/first-cold-case-murder-verdict-is-overturned-29125220.html(12 March 2013)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey Siz, what any idea what mom would like for Christmas? I know just where to look and it'll be delivered in no time.
0:06.0	To Limerick, how? Easy, gifts. i.e. I've been using them for years.
0:10.8	So that's where you got the engraved wine glass for my birthday.
0:13.7	The secrets out. My boss uses them for hamper's every year and they're the number
0:18.9	one rated gifts website in Ireland. Thanks EFA. What would I do without you? You mean what would you do
0:24.1	without gifts. i e? Make this Christmas special with gifts dot i e.
0:30.0	You were listening to the mens rea podcast and this is the story of Brian McGrath. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
0:55.0	Oh.
0:56.0	Oh, you know.
0:57.0	Oh,
0:58.0	Oh, Oh, Oh, Brian McGrath was born on the 20th of August, 1944. Soon after his birth he was wrapped in a blanket and deposited on the steps of the church in Castle Blaney County Monaghan.
1:25.2	After his discovery he was taken in and raised by the local nuns.
1:30.5	When he reached adolescence he was sent to the notorious Artain Industrial School,
1:36.0	an institution for boys just north of Dublin City that by all accounts was a place of cruelty and abuse. The Christian brothers who ran the place
1:45.3	believed firmly in corporal punishment, and beyond that, sexual abuse and humiliation and
1:52.0	degradation of these boys was also not uncommon.
1:55.6	These boys were unwanted or the rebellious or the misdirected or the poor. Not many cared for them, and the brothers in Artain took full advantage of that.
2:09.5	Brian also called Bernard by some stayed in Artain until he was 16.
2:15.0	He left the school with nothing more than a new pair of boots and made his way into the
2:19.4	city.
2:20.6	It was up to him to take care of himself now.
2:23.0	Shortly after this, he met Vera Langen on the velvet strand in Port Marnock.
	...

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