The Murderer and the Taoiseach: Death, Politics and GUBU - Revisiting the Notorious Malcolm Macarthur Case

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A Murderer. A Leader. The Scandal of an Era.

'Reads like a thriller but is sadly all too true ... a brilliant account of shocking crimes and the dramatic political crisis they caused' David McCullagh

The summer of 1982 was long-seared into the Irish public imagination for more than just its record high temperatures. That July, an aristocrat named Malcolm Macarthur went on a brutal killing spree, taking the lives of two innocent young people - Bridie Gargan and Donal Dunne - in a doomed plan to remedy his financial woes.

A massive manhunt was launched and, in a sensational turn of events, Macarthur was captured in the home of the State's top law officer, Attorney General Patrick Connolly.

The scandal attracted worldwide headlines and resulted in untold damage to Taoiseach Charles Haughey. The words he used to describe the dark events - grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented - coined the era-defining phrase GUBU.

Here, award-winning political journalist and GUBU podcast-maker Harry McGee retraces the happenings of that long hot summer and beyond. From the cat-and-mouse game to track down an unpredictable killer to Macarthur's extraordinary capture, he considers both the life and psyche of a murderer, and that of the leading political figure of the time - a man similarly driven by greed, status and a sense of himself as existing above the law.

Including previously unknown aspects of the trial and interaction with Malcolm Macarthur himself, The Murderer and the Taoiseach is a compulsive journey through tragedy and scandal.

'Brisk, illuminating, crackling with detail' Tony Connelly

'An incredible and compelling story' Matt Cooper

Author Bio

Harry McGee is a political correspondent with The Irish Times and previously worked for the Irish Examiner, the Sunday Tribune, RTE and the current affairs magazine Magill, which he edited. He has written and presented TV documentaries in English and Irish for RTE and TG4, and he produced the podcast series, GUBU, for The Irish Times. A native of Salthill, Galway, he is a graduate of the University of Galway and the King's Inns. The Murderer and the Taoiseach is his first book.