Who Killed Una Lynskey?

A true story of murder and vengeance, vigilante justice, a shattered community, the garda ‘heavy gang’, and a miscarriage of justice that echoes down the decades.

October 1971, nineteen-year-old Una Lynskey vanishes near her home in Meath.

In the weeks that follow, and on flimsy grounds, gardaí identify three young local men as suspects. Within days of her body being found, one of the three is beaten to death by members of Una’s family. The entire sequence of events is a tragedy in a quiet rural community – the wrong men jailed, no one ever facing justice – and becomes one of the most notorious failures in Irish policing and judicial history.

Award-winning journalist Mick Clifford has built a compelling portrait of the case from interviews with the surviving main players, as well as exclusive access to the files of a private investigator who uncovered information the gardaí missed – or ignored. A timely, humane and compulsive read, this is a ground-breaking account of the botched investigation and its devastating consequences for not just four devastated families, but also the reputation of the gardaí.