New book features 39 West Cork murders

A NEW book due out this month tells the stories of 39 historic murders in West Cork.

Murder Most Local, Historic Murders of West Cork features true historical murders from Clonakilty to the Beara Peninsula.

‘Each crime is completely unique and some are unsolved to this day,’ the author, Peter O’Shea told The Southern Star. ‘Some villains were executed but some people still can’t be sure they were the actual perpetrators.’

Among the motives that drove people to do such terrible things, are love, money, drink, madness and, of course, land.

This is the fourth book by the Ballycotton-based author. The kernel of book four actually appeared in his first offering Well, Here I am in Ballycotton.

‘There was a lot of feedback about a local murder in the Ballycotton book, and it gave rise to the Murder Most Local series,’ said Peter.

The West Cork edition follows on from famous murders in East Cork and North Cork. It was while researching his East Cork edition that Peter – whose day job is as the mechanic on Ballycotton Lifeboat – discovered many other historical murders around Cork County and decided there was enough material for a series.

Peter’s West Cork book is available at the Skibbereen Bookshop, Bantry Bookshop, Kerr’s Bookshop in Clonakilty, O’Keeffe’s SuperValu in Bantry, Worm Books in Schull, Bandon Books Plus, Bookstόr Kinsale, Scally’s SuperValu in Clonakilty, Collin’s Centra in Drimoleague, Galvin’s Centra Dunmanway and Field’s SuperValu in Skibbereen.