Mick Clifford: Jury is still out on whether Ian Bailey murdered Sophie Toscan du Plantier

Jim Sheridan’s 'Re-Creation' imagines the trial Ian Bailey never faced, reopening debate around Ireland’s most haunting unsolved murder

Jim Sheridan's Re-Creation sees him delving again into the real-life murder of French TV producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier in 1996.

The last time I met Ian Bailey he talked a lot about “the Jim doc”. That was what he called Murder At The Cottage, a documentary made by the movie director Jim Sheridan in 2021. It was one of two documentaries released at around the same time about the 1996 murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in West Cork.

Bailey was very complimentary of “the Jim doc”, but his face darkened when the subject turned to the other doc, Sophie: A West Cork Murder. From soon after the violent death of Ms du Plantier, until his own demise from a suspected heart attack in January 2024, Bailey was the chief suspect for the murder. In broad terms, Sheridan’s work veered towards pitching Bailey as the victim of a miscarriage of justice, while its rival production invited viewers to believe he had got away with murder.