Episode 101 - The Murder of Charles Self

Charles Self, an RTE set designer, was brutally murdered in his own home on an icy night in January 1982. 40 years later the case remains clouded in mystery. The investigation that followed saw 1500 gay men interviewed around Dublin, with many feeling the gardai used the investigation as cover to carry out a witch hunt against the gay community, at a time when homosexual acts were outlawed in Ireland. The murder happened in a very different Ireland to today's society - gay people were hunted by vicious gangs and got little protection from the police or courts, who more than once allowed killers to walk free because their victims were gay. We're joined by Frank Greaney, who has investigated the Charles Self case in his new podcast 'Inside the Crime', and Bill Foley, a gay rights activist who tells us about the hate and danger the LGBT community faced in the Ireland of the 1980s.