Mick Clifford: A year of remarkable writing

Malcolm Macarthur, whose two killings were without reason, was arrested in the home of the then Attorney General.

Two outstanding books published this year reached back into the 1980s. Other fine tomes made their way onto shelves over the last twelve months so let’s take a peek at some which, certainly in the opinion of this columnist, nourished the imagination in 2023.

Malcolm Macarthur has long been a source of fascination if not repulsion. In the dog days of a sweltering July in 1982, he murdered two young innocent people, Bridie Gargan and Derek Dunne. The former was a nurse sunbathing in the Phoenix Park after coming off a shift. The latter was a farmer who had advertised a gun for sale.