The Words Of West Cork: Episode Two

On this page you’ll find the words that are analysed in the second 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.

Marie Farrell - being outed

The guards arrived at the house and they couldn't have been nicer. And they said you know, we know you are Fiona. And there's a few boys in the station and they want to have a word with you…

Marie Farrell - early TV appearance

Around 3am on the morning of the 23rd of December, I saw a man walking along the bridge. He appeared to be in a drunken state and he's waving his arms around. When I pointed the man out to the Guardai they told me that his name was Ian Bailey.

Marie Farrell - another early TV appearance

(You're 100% sure it was Ian Bailey on the bridge)

110% and Ian Bailey confirmed that to me when he came into my shop because he said I know you saw me on the bridge.

Marie Farrell - what she saw on the bridge

(You actually saw Ian Bailey a mile from Sophie's home the night she was murdered.)

I did yes.

(And what exactly did you see?)

Erm… I was driving home I’d been out for the evening and erm, I just eh picked up this man in the headlights of my car, staggering along the road. He just appeared to be drunk erm he was staggering and sort of waving his hands around.

Marie Farrell - getting threatened

He arrived in the shop and he said that he knew I had seen him on the bridge and that he wanted me to tell his solicitor that a Guardia had made me make up the story about him. And if I did that he would leave me alone and while I had no intentions of doing that he made my life hell. And at one stage I thought he's so big he could kill me here in two minutes and nobody would know. He.. erm..would make cut throat gestures like this if he met me on the street, or he would do this. That type of intimidation went on for months and months.

Marie Farrell - on further threats

Maybe three weeks ago… erm…  Ian Bailey started parking outside my house when I saw him there one day, eh about seven in the morning. Erm.. a few days before that he stopped me on the road and he told me that he was representing himself at his next case. The.. his exact words eh… the next time I will represent myself and then I will cross examine you and he laughed and drove away.

(And I mean, was it that you felt afraid as a result of this?)

Yeah, I do fe- I feel very afraid.

Marie Farrell - what she was doing that night

I had met a friend, I wasn't having an affair, the husband said I was, I definitely wasn't but my husband didn't know who I had gone to meet that night for a drink. And that was just the start of a nightmare.

Marie Farrell - on what she now says is the truth

I said that he was harassing me and he was calling into the shop and he was threatening me and none of that ever happened.

(Did he ever do that to you?)

Never never.

(So he never threatened to slit your throat?)

Never, never did.

(So when the.. the thing they got from you is the statement to say that you saw him outside your shop and at Kealfadda Bridge?)

Yeah

The murder happened and the local guard came to the shop with a videotape and he asked me to bring it home and watch it and see was that the man that I had seen. And I brought it back to the guard station in Schull the next day. And I said you know that is not the man that was outside the shop.

Marie Farrell - on the man following Sophie

(You were in your shop?)

I was in the shop that day, yeah.

(You were standing outside with Dan Griffin?)

That's right. Yeah, because it was so quiet eh.. he owned the premises.

And this woman came into the shop browsing around. She was probably mid 30s. And at the same time there was a man standing across the road. At the time, I didn't think that he was following her, but he was watching her.

And ..eh.. the woman, she didn't buy anything, she browsed around and she left and she turned up right and walked up Ardmanagh Road and as she did that the man who was across the road, he also walked across the street and he went up Ardmanagh Road. And at that time, Dan Griffen said to me that he's a strange character.

Marie Farrell - why did she change her story?

(The inference is that you changed your opinion, because you'd go through a case against the state. Bailey would be paid a load of money and you get half ‘it.)

I don't know where that came from. There was nothing for me to gain by changing my statements or my story. The only thing was I th-thought it was time to tell the truth and stand up to the Guards. Got a phone call from the Guard, the inspector and he told me that Sophie’s parents were going to take a case, a civil action against Ian Bailey. And there will be another court case and I'd have to go to court again. And I told him that I would never ever again go to court for the Guards and tell lies. I did benefit from, you know, doing whatever the guards wanted me to do.

Did you think Bailey did it?

They told me he did it. And at the time I did believe them. But then I started thinking if he did do it, why do they need to manufacture all of this stuff around him?