84 - Dark Saga: The murder of Philomena Gillane

Mens Rea: A true crime podcast

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True Crime, Society & Culture

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🗓️ 24 January 2021

⏱️ 85 minutes

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Summary

In May of 1994, Philomena Gillane was 7 months pregnant. On the morning of Wednesday the 11th, she left her home early to head to work. But she never arrived. She was found dead in the boot of her own car 25 miles away, at Athlone Train station. Her family would spend the next 3 years in and out of courts dealing with the fallout from her brutal murder, and in a search for justice that was never fully achieved. Join me at CrimeCon UK on June 12-13th 2021. For more information and tickets visit crimecon.co.uk. Use the code MENSREA for 10% off. Purchase a ticket with the code and get in touch to get a free Mens Rea T-Shirt (limited to first 10 listeners who contact me) With thanks to our sponsors for this episode: Try the casual mobile puzzle game Best Fiends today! Find it on the Apple App store and Google Play! 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: “Missing pregnant woman sought” in The Irish Times(18 May 1994) p. 2. Paul O'Neill, “Murdered woman was stabbed, shot in the back” in The Irish Times (19 May 1994) p. 1. Edward O'Loughlin, “Staff at Loughlinstown Hosital to hold special Mass for dead colleague” in The Irish Times(19 May 1994) p. 7 Paul O'Neill, “Woman's body lies in car as life goes on at busy station” in The Irish Times (19 May 1994) p. 7. Michael Finlan, “Latest violent death further blow to tranquility of Galway villages” in The Irish Times(19 May 1994) p. 7. Fergus Black, “Cheery victim 'was the careful type'” in Irish Independent (19 May 1994) p. 7. Brian McDonald, “Cars fan spotted neatly parked Kadett” in The Irish Independent (19 May 1994) p. 7 Don Lavery, “Gone five when reported missing” in The Irish Independent (19 May 1994) p. 6. Paul O'Neill, “Victim may have been fleeing” in The Irish Times (20 May 1994) p. 1. Annmaria McAnearney and Brian McDonald, “Murder: photo-fits of two suspects” in The Evening Herald(20 May 1994) p. 4. Paul O'Neill, “Community left seeking some rationale for recent events” in The Irish Times (20 May 1994) p. 6. Annemarie McEnearney, “Husband left behind to move into 'dream home'” in The Irish Independent(20 May 1994) p. 9 Paul O'Neill “Gardai suspect two may be involved in killing” in The Irish Times (21 May 1994) p. 5. Michael Finlan, “Caltra weeps for its dead daughter” in The Irish Times (21 May 1994) p. 5. Michael Finlan, “Silent crowds mourn as murder victim buried” in The Irish Times (23 May 1994) p. 5. “Problems facing murder hunt cops” in The Sunday World(22 May 1994) p. 4. Mike McNiffe, “It's awful. Oh God, I'm in a terrible state” in The Sunday World (22 May 1994) p. 4. Joanne McElgunn, “Who's sentence an unborn baby to death” in The Sunday World (24 July 1994) p. 10-11. Paul O'Neill, “Gardai widen search in Gillane killing” in The Irish Times (24 May 1994) p. 3. Jim Cusack, “Two being held in Gillane murder inquiry” in The Irish Times (25 May 1994) p. 1. “Gillane search centred on home” in The Irish Times(25 May 1994) p. 4. Michael Finlan, “Gardai detain another man over Gillane murder” in The Irish Times (26 May 1994) p. 1. Michael Finlan, “Gillane case: two freed by gardai” in The Irish Times (27 May 1994) p. 1. Paul O'Neill, “Mrs Gillane's body found in night clothes” in The Irish Times (28 May 1994) p. 1. “Philomena 'had nightclothes on'” in The Evening Herald (28 May 1994) p. 3. “Legal snags hit Gillane murder case” in The Sunday Tribune (29 May 1994) p. 5. “Weapons search continues” in The Irish Times(30 May 1994) p. 4. Paul O'Neill, “Man eliminated from murder inquiry, two others still sought” in The Irish Times(1 June 1994) p. 3. Brenda Power “Murder at dawn in Caltra” in The Sunday Tribune(24 July 1994) p. 7. Paul O'Neill, “Gardai hold man in Gillane murder inquiry” in The Irish Times (27 July 1994) p. 2. “Man released from custody” in The Irish Times(29 July 1994) p. 5. For a full list of sources please see mensreapod.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to to be here. Oh, In May of 1994, Philomena Galan was 41 years old and pregnant.
0:40.0	In May of 1994, Philomena Galan was 41 years old and pregnant with her second child.
0:47.0	She and her husband and their nine-month-old baby boy lived in Philomena's childhood home, Beachlon House, located just outside the tiny village of
0:56.5	Caltra in East Galway. Beachlon was a very old house, bigger than most farmhouses of its type and was without most modern conveniences.
1:07.3	Philomena and Pat lived there with Philomena's mother, Noni Gordon.
1:12.3	She was a widow, her husband Mike having passed
1:14.7	away 15 years before. Philomena's older sister Brydy also lived in the house
1:19.8	along with one of their brothers. But Pat and Philomena were anticipating a move.
1:26.0	The couple were building a large two-story house at the side of an 80-acre farm in Gort,
1:32.0	County Galway, that Pat and his brother Kevin had inherited from their parents.
1:37.0	The house was nearly finished and Philomena was set to pick out carpeting and curtains the
1:41.7	following week. Pat had cleared and reseeded some of the land in preparation for bringing livestock onto it.
1:49.0	Pat also had a factory job in Galway City and had for a time been a long-haul trucker.
1:56.0	Philomena actually worked in Dublin.
1:58.6	She had a job in St. Columkill's Hospital in Lockland's Town, working in their catering department and she'd been there for 20 years.
2:06.8	Philomeno would go to Dublin and stay there for a week. She worked one week off and one week on and loved her job. While in Dublin she slept in quarters on the hospital grounds.
2:18.0	Philomena was a fun, kind person, but was also a careful woman. She had money saved in the bank and had paid
2:25.9	the sixty five thousand pounds needed for the building of their gort home in cash,
2:30.7	and she still had a significant sum squirreled away in her bank account after.
2:35.9	On the 10th of May 1994 Pat and Philomena had gone for a drink in the pub.
2:42.2	They talked about plans for the house and were home by midnight.
2:46.1	Philomena was leaving early the following morning, heading to Dublin to begin her week at work.
	...

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