On this page you’ll find the words that are analysed in the fourth episode of The Words of West Cork Podcast.
If you have any comments, questions or queries on the episode please leave them in the comments at the bottom of this article. Or email info@neveratruerword.com if you’d prefer. We’ll incorporate some of the feedback into the final episode of the podcast.
Ian Bailey - his story
As everybody knows, 20 odd years ago, there was a murder in.. in West Cork. At the time, I was a ..eh.. journalist, freelance journalist. And I finished up reporting on the .. the crime. And within a few weeks, um, I had been identified by the Guards, falsely as the suspect. That began.. that was 20 odd years ago. And I have throughout that period, I've done everything that I could to protest my innocence.
Because I know, I know that I have nothing to do with this and I know that the false narrative that I did have something to do with it is a complete myth. I can't prove that. I know that. It's difficult.. the gap between knowing something and being able to prove … so I'm like, I've been left in a situation where I've been accused in France of the murder.
Ian Bailey - on Sophie’s Family
Look I.. I’m sorry for their pain. I’..I’m sorry for their suffering. I'm sorry about all the lies that they've chosen to believe and I'm sorry for their suffering. You know but the thing is this, there are no winners in this only losers, of a war of twisted words and corrupted statements. And I'm aware that they chose to believe the web of engrangement of wound by devils. I'm sorry for them and you know, we're tough and there we are.
Ian Bailey - his late night writing
Well, I did get up that night, and I did.. erm.. and I did some writing here on the.. on this kitchen table. Eh.. I’m not exactly sure what time it was.
I had a deadline for a story, the following… that I thought had to be delivered on the Monday morning and I hadn't finished that article. And what I did do was I got up and I eh…. certainly, at… it was nothing unusual for me particularly to get up at maybe three or four o'clock in the morning.
If my… if I woke up and my mind was alert and alive. And I had something to write about and come down and write
(Even if you had a lot to drink?)
Um.. well, I hadn't had that much to drink that… that night. Erm I mean, I'd had a couple of pints and I might have had a whiskey or two eh.. that was over the course of the evening.
Jules Thomas - on late night writing
Because I just know what he was doing that night. He was here writing on this table, a newspaper article. It wasn't there when we went to bed. When he got up. He was quite excited about what he'd written. And he said look at this, you know.
Jules and Ian - after the French court verdict
(Are we going to tell the world that you still stand by Ian and say it’s all a load of lies?)
Oh, yeah, I would. I do. I always have. Yeah, yeah.
It’s um
eh what I would like to say is all they've succeeded in doing is convicting a completely innocent person of a crime he had nothing to do with.
"On this kitchen table". I think Bailey's intention here was to keep himself within the walls of the Prairie house for as long as possible that night, and not outside of the house. The Studio house was where Bailey did the majority of his writing but he stresses that on that night, "on this kitchen table" because once he moves outside the Prairie house he will have to discuss a part of his alibi that is weak, and a part that he is not comfortable with.