How the Gentle Giant met the infamous Black Widow

Tom Nevin is still remembered by his family as The Gentle Giant.

In death, as in life, his wife Catherine will be forever known as the Black Widow.

The older staff in Jack White’s pub remember him as quiet and easy-going with a love of sport, especially hurling. Catherine, on the other hand, did the hiring and firing and one woman who worked under her described her as intimidating and a bully.

There was no doubt, though, that she was smart. She grew up in the small Co Kildare village of Nerney and went to school at the Presentation College, Kildare, where teachers described her as hard-working.

She was also ambitious, buying sewing machines when she left school and going around the country giving dressmaking lessons. She also took a beauty course and would later lecture students on makeup and presentation.

Her first job when she left school was in the Castle Hotel, Dublin’s oldest, where she worked as a receptionist. Still only 21, it was there she met Tom Nevin, a regular visitor to the hotel.

He was managing his uncle’s pub in Dolphin’s Barn in Dublin. Romance blossomed and they married in Rome in January 1976, following the annulment of Tom’s previous marriage. Originally from the Galway village of Tynagh, he was at that stage a relatively wealthy man.

Tom’s easy charm and Catherine’s ambition were a heady combination. Within five years they had amassed a portfolio of properties in Dublin, all of them managed by Catherine.

In March 1986, the Nevins took over Jack White’s bar. They worked hard and built a good business. The week-end of Tom’s murder was their 10th anniversary as landlords at Jack White’s.

At the time there was pity for Ms Nevin, facing her husband’s funeral when they should have been celebrating together. At his funeral, Catherine appeared grief-stricken, standing by his graveside and holding a single red rose. She had a black marble monument constructed on his grave, featuring poetry and a message from his wife. She even had an advertisement placed in a local newspaper that spoke of her devotion to Tom.

Four years later, she stood in the dock, accused of murdering her husband and repeatedly attempting to hire three men to kill him.

Her stated devotion to Tom was sorely tested in the dock. In the course of her trial, the court heard of allegations by her that her husband had been a member of the IRA, a drunkard, and gay.

Evidence had also been heard that Catherine had had affairs before the murder with a local judge and a senior garda officer.

The murder trial was one of the longest courtroom sagas in Irish legal history.

The jury heard evidence from 170 witnesses and a three-day address from defence counsel Patrick MacEntee SC.

She denied the charges, claiming that Tom had been killed by robbers but the jury of six men and six women were unanimous in finding her guilty of murder and of soliciting three men to murder her husband.

Sentencing her to a mandatory life term, trial judge Ms Justice Mella Carroll told her: “You had your husband assassinated, and you tried to assassinate his character as well. I hope his family will take some consolation from this verdict.”