‘Figure of Hate’ — the true origins of a controversial newspaper chief

IT seems the Hidden History TV series get its facts wrong, if some recent instalments are anything to go by.

This happened again during the ‘Figure of Hate’ programme about William Martin Murphy, proprietor of the Freeman’s Journal and leader of the Dublin employers during the 1913 lockout (RTÉ 1, November 13). The programme claimed he was born in Bantry, Co Cork. When researching it, the production company sent a representative to Castletownbere where she met with two members of the Beara Historical Society who filled her in on the history of the Murphy family and brought her to the house at Derrymihan West, about half a mile east of the town, where William Martin was born. Some weeks later an interviewer and cameraman from the programme visited Castletownbere and interviewed two members of the historical society for more than an hour.

They were given birth and baptismal certificates stating that William Martin Murphy was born on December 31, 1844, and baptised on January 6, 1845, in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Castletownbere. In another part of the programme it was stated that “a group of MPs from west Cork, known as the Bantry Gang, were instrumental in overthrowing Parnell as leader of the Irish Party. Wrong again. The group was made up of the Sullivan brothers, TD, AM and Tom; Tim and Maurice Healy, William Martin Murphy, James Gilhooly (all Bantry), and brothers Tim and Ned Harrington, from Castletownbere.