Being a tourist for a day in your own city awakens you to appreciate what’s on your own doorstep.
The Dublin True Crime Tour provided by Alternative Dublin City delves into crimes of the past.
From kidnappings to art heists, robberies and murders, you will view landmarks from a very different perspective.
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Eoin Conlon, 31, from Dublin, is our tour guide. His voice is boomy and excited – I feel like I’m watching Keith Barry on stage.
We meet at the Molly Malone statue on Suffolk Street.
The group is a mix of tourists and Dubliners keen to explore their own turf.
We hear how St Andrew’s Church was often targeted by body snatchers, a place where a character nicknamed the “Crazy Crow” was arrested in the early 1800s.
He was in the frame for taking hundreds of bodies, but he probably only stole one. But he was made an example of and jailed for life.
The bodies were cut up for medical science with the expansion of medical colleges in the late 1700s.
At that time, digging up a corpse could earn you a guinea, which was a lot more than a week’s salary at a time when families struggled to put food on the table.
“Resurrection men” was another name given to the infamous grave-robbers, whose exploits prompted vigilante gangs to start protecting graves of loved ones.
It’s incredible to think how Dracula author Bram Stoker got his inspiration from his uncle and brother, who were both surgeons.
Much of the vampire novel was based around their knowledge, from Stoker hearing of his brother and uncle draining the blood from bodies.
You couldn’t do a tour without talking about Molly Malone and how the real Molly, aka Peg Plunkett, ran a brothel.
Molly is not a real character but inspired by Peg, who was one of the most prolific brothel owners in the capital from the 1750s to 1790s.
Peg worked in a brothel and was treated badly so she decided to set up her own brothel, catering to wealthy clients from politicians to judges and lawyers.
It was one of the largest operations of its kind in all of Europe until the Irish Free State broke it up in 1925.
Peg came in contact with a terrifying gang, the Pinking Dindies, who sprang from the upper echelons of society. Brave Peg faced them down and got the lawyers and judges who frequented her establishment to take a lawsuit against them.
Despite her business being illegal, she got a judgment against the gang.
Next up we delve into an unlikely murder at Trinity College.
There were four students getting drunk at a party with the rest of their class in the 1900s.
The Dean of discipline, Andrew Forde, brandished a firearm at the lads, but they had their own weapons.
The Dean was shot by one of the students, who happened to be an Earl’s son. He got away scot free.
We walk to Dublin Castle, where sickening torture and execution was meted out in the late 1700s.
Pitch capping was the punishment of choice for those tried for treason in the wake of the 1798 Wexford Rebellion.
This is the shocking part of the tour where you might throw up if you’ve a weak stomach.
Eoin disclosed the punishment for treason, which is grim to say the least.
He said: “Using a sharp instrument, officials would peel back and take off their entire flesh and drill a hole in their skull. Then they would take their hot pitch, hot boiling tar, and pour it over the traitor’s head – literally boiling their brains inside their skulls.
“The ‘traitors’ did not die in minutes but in hours. That’s why we call this area of Dublin Castle the Devil’s Half Acre.”
The theft of the Crown Jewels is up next. Eoin told how the jewels – worth about €7million in today’s money – have never been recovered, “so check your granny’s attic”.
We pass the Veronica Guerin statue in the gardens of Dublin Castle and Eoin recounts the story of the fearless journalist for those unfamiliar with it.
Veronica was gunned down in her car in June 1998 after she took on the drugs gangs and refused to back down, exposing John Gilligan and his cohorts.
We journey now towards Christ Church Cathedral, built in 1030 by Vikings who reportedly felt guilty about their grandparents raping, pillaging and burning down churches.
This is the home to the heart of former Archbishop and monk Lawrence O’Toole who is now a saint.
We hear of the great Heart Heist and how the protected organ artefact was kept safe for 800 years, until a mystery gang stole it in 2012.
The guilty thieves anonymously returned the heart, dropping it near Garda HQ in the Phoenix Park in 2019.
So it’s safely back in its box.
We descend on St Audoen’s Church and hear about the Demon Pig.
In the 1740s, The Blackdog prison housed criminal Olacher, a man accused of brutalising and taking the dignity of a woman.
Legend is he escaped and turned into a demon with a pig’s head, but there’s a twist.
The tale of the Stoneybatter Strangler, also known as Billy the Bowl, is vicious and sad. Immortalised in a mural, Billy was born with no legs, so blacksmiths made him a bucket to get around.
Little girls with purses, which they held for their masters, felt sorry for beautiful Billy.
Of all the beggars in Dublin, Billy received the most money.
But soon he turned to gambling and drinking, needing more than coppers to feed his addiction.
Strangling the girls for their purses became his new obsession.
Eoin added: “That was his downfall – from Billy In The Bowl he became the Stoneybatter Strangler.”
- For further details visit www.alternativedublincity.com.
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