The murder of innocence

It’s 30 years since the “grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented” events that led to the resignation of the attorney general, writes Richard Fitzpatrick

ON this day 30 years ago, Patrick Connolly, the government’s attorney general, resigned. It was a Monday. He had been summoned from his holidays in New York by Taoiseach Charles J Haughey.

Three days before, police had found Malcolm MacArthur, who had been on the run since the end of July, having committed two murders, in Connolly’s apartment in Pilot View, Dalkey, Co Dublin.