April 8, 2025 • 50 mins
What do you do when you come home to find there is no home where your home should be? This was the curious dilemma for one particularly unlucky Irishman. His missing home conundrum led to a meandering multi-decade long legal melee to solve the seemingly magical mystery of who stole his missing 150-year old house. Because on an island with a population less than the seating limit of a large restaurant, somehow no one knew what happened to his missing home.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous crime.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
How you doing, I'm good?
Speaker 1 (00:08):
How about you?
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Good?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Listen? You know what's late?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
No, I got a question for you. Don't jump on
my horse.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I was gonna try and mess you up.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Do you know it's ridiculous?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I do, I do. I have a mashup for you. Look,
I just come right out of the gate.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Oh you didn't surprise me. There's that I'm standing, just
came up, slapped me right in the face with like
a fish.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Listen, I'll give you one part of it, Taco Bell.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Okay, I'm done.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And then what would be your nightmare mashup? Taco Bell
and some sex toys? Oh heavens, Oh my goodness, pro gets.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
It Taco Bell and give me another.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Okay, radio shack, give me closer, not dew.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
No, I'll tell you they already have it. They go
hand in hand with the bay Ham Lease all right, listen.
In Vidia so and Vidia is partnering with Taco Bell.
Actually young brands their parents company to streamline the drive
through experience.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
So they're going to AI, they drive through experience.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, they're going to dose AI.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So it's gonna help with like I'm not really actually
sure I was.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Reading through this.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's going to do something in terms of suggesting specific
menu items to customers to take a short time to prepare.
They're like, oh, you came here for this item.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Something else?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
What about this? They just a slop that we put
in a bucket already.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
All exactly so other like McDonald's tried this, it failed
because apparently, my.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Favorite part about this is like McDonald's.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
They partnered with IBM and they killed the project in
twenty twenty four because quote, the technology was taking drive
through orders. The change came after numerous customers on social
media bemoaned wildly incorrect additions to orders, from nine Sweet
Teas to pats of butter. So it's like it becomes sentient,
(02:18):
and it becomes a teenager messing with you. Yes, and
it's not like, oh, the teenager who always puts like
an extra nugget in there.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
That's not good. It's not good AI, it's Ai AI.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
No.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
So anyway, everyone's all jazzed about this partnership.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So next time when you go, I guess it's not
just Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut under the Young
Brand's umbrella.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Thank goodness. None of those are brands I go to.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I know, but next time you're there, next time you're
at a KFC.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Drive through at the airport.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, we'll see what AI does for you.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, and that is ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I'll give you that. That is ridiculous. You sit back down.
I got a question for you. Have you ever been like,
heading home, you drive to the wrong house.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Oh, Georgia's wrong house.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, like like you know, like maybe a different house
you used to live at.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Actually no, although when I moved into the house that
I live in now, for about a month, I couldn't
remember which driveway.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Was mine as I was pulling in.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I'd oftentimes go to turn into the driveway before mine
and be like, oh no, no, I'm in the next house.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Wow, that's the special.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I'm very special.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, but I've done that kind of automatic driving where
you get in the car to go somewhere and you
realize you're going in the wrong direction you meant to go.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Yeah, I've had a lot of friends do that. I'd
have never done that because it's just not my way,
but I'm always surprised when my friends do it. I'm like,
are we going to your old place.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, going to the old place where like it Sometimes
like you get in the car and you want to
go to the store, but you find yourself driving to work.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Oh yeah, I've done that one either. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I said, I'm special.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
It's got to be fun. Now, imagine if you drove
home one day and your home just wasn't there. That's
you think for a moment, I must be in the
wrong place, right, Yeah, but you're not. You're not wrong.
Your house should be there and it's not. It's gone.
Oh like, was your home stolen?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
It's like empty lot.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
What do you do when when someone makes your whole
house disappear?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Sarah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
That's what's happened to this Irish dude, Elizabeth that I'd
like to tell you about today.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I would like you for you to tell me about it.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
You're ready for what I'm calling the case of the
Missing Irish Home.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yes, I'm ready for that.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
heist and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free
and one hundred percent ridiculous nutragious. I Elizabeth Sar, I'd
like to introduce you to my man Neville Presshow hello, Now.
My man Neville was a civil engineer, a documentary filmmaker,
(05:11):
a married man, father of young children, also a homeowner
in Ireland. We'll get into that in a second now.
As a documentary filmmaker, my man Neville had co written,
directed produced multiple documentaries, internationally acclaimed, award winning. One of
them was rather prescient for his own life. It was
his nineteen eighty one documentary called Desecration. Ok. It was
(05:32):
about this amateur archaeologist on an Irish island. The amateur
archaeologist is focused on preserving this crumbling medieval castle, right,
he just throws his lot in. He's like, oh, I'm
going to be the one to save this bit of history.
But some locals on the island have a different idea.
They're like, nah, no, no, no, no, we got something else.
We want to dig under the crumbling castle because it's
(05:54):
no longer good for anything or anyone. So you know
what they wanted to dig Elizabeth a mine. They're like, yeah,
there's some pressure medals underneath the castle. So guess who
won the miners? If you said amateur archaeologist, you win
the no prize. He lost so one day his own
life would mirror this life of this amateur archaeologist. He
(06:14):
made a documentary about so, like, what's the deal, what
happened to this poor bloke Neble?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
What happened?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Well, it was July nineteen ninety four. A fairy was
pulling up to the Island of Tory.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Like a boat, ferry, not like a sprite.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah yeah, not like a brownie a sprite, like a
floating a vessel exactly. You could buy a ticket for it,
ticket to ride, not that kind of fairy. So Nevill's
on the ferry and he's playing a game A lot
of us have played a little game I like to
call I can see my house from here right, So
the there he is. He's scanning the island of Tory.
And this is a tiny island. I mean, this is
(06:46):
like less than two hundred people live on this island.
And if you're wondering where it is, it's off the
Irish coast. It's up there at the top of the
Emerald Isle. It's on the north side, near letter Kenny
and Londonderry or Dairry Erry Jerry. I know there's two names,
though I looked on the map there's one name. Well anyway,
the island is Arry. It's not only tiny, but it's
also Hella remote, right, So Neville he'd been gone for
(07:07):
about eight years, and he left in eighty six because
I'm not sure if you knew this, but eighty six
there's a big exodus of Irish laborers, about twenty eight
thousand of his countrymen all left because the economy went
in the tank. So he, after this bad economic downturn,
went down to New Zealand for work. So he's down
in New Zealand, other side of the world right now,
in nineteen ninety four. He's excited to return home. So
(07:29):
he's scanning the island. He's looking for his house, he's
checking the cliffs. But it's not there, Elizabeth. Instead, there's
just this big blank space right where his home should be.
There's no doubt about it. His home's gone, like the
world's worst magic trick. So what happened? Where was my
man Neville's home? The question is, Elizabeth, how did this happen?
Not what or why? But how? And to answer that
(07:49):
we must first answer the question I lied, why why
does this happen? It's fun So to answer that, I
need to tell you about Tory Island. You ever heard
of it? No, I had not, I never, I didn't
even know it was part of Ireland. But Tory Island,
like I said, located off the north coast. Was it
formed by the British Conservative Party The Tories no, spelled
(08:10):
differently t o r y. They're like the t r E.
I guess that's plural. Never mind. Yeah, so Elizabeth, it's
not in the British area. It's Irish Irish, right, okay,
Tory Island, known by the locals as Tory is this
as they.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Said, it's not part of Northern Ireland.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
No, it's part part of Ireland. Yeah, okay, part of
the Republic. And it's located just off the County Donegal
in northwest of Ulster in the Republic of Ireland. Right
and a gay Electori means a place of steep rocky heights.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Right. So the island, as I said, sits in the
North Atlantic, which, as you know, it means rough waters.
And like there's that ferry that I mentioned that serves
the island. But due to the rough seas, services isn't
year round, Like you can't get to the island year round.
So in the winter. The locals if they want to
leave or there's an emergency, they have to rely on
this like four seedar helicopter to like ferry them back,
which means, you know, if I live there, I wouldn't
(09:00):
leave Tory Island between November and April cause there's no
way you're getting me on that middle chopper.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Well, and you play the game of I can see
my house from there on those ferry rides. I play
the game of like eye on the horizon, you will
not vomit Eye on the horizon, you will.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
That's right. You get season, get emotion sickness.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Yeah, yeah, any motion sickness.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
That's me.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
That's fun right, so fun yea. And I used to
make like a friend of mine like get carsick when
I would read in the car because he could just
imagine that and then he would get carsick. So anyway,
as I sold you Tory Island lightly populated. Now, Elizabeth,
you want to guess how many people live in.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Tory lightly populated. I can't imagine it's very large.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I don't know. I'm going to put it at two
fifty pretty good guests.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
In twenty twenty two, the Census reported there were one
hundred and forty one people living in Tory now. Best
estimates I've seen for recently the last couple of years
is one hundred and seventy, so they've picked up a few.
So one hundred and seventy weary souls live in four towns.
There's East Town, Westtown, Middletown, and New Town.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Oh love, yeah, so those four times.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
It is right.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
They got the one hundred and seventy people. But for
those hundred and seventy people, there's no power plant, so
they all the electrical power and you know, keeping the
lights on comes down to three diesel generators. Oh yeah,
which is just wild. So that the three diesel generators
they churn and burn through about five hundred liters of
fuel every day. That's one hundred and thirty two gallons
of fuel for every day.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You know, they have windmills, what's up right now?
Speaker 3 (10:27):
So this is how they keep the bleak and the
cold at their door, these three diesel generators for everyone. Right,
So the residents of Torrey Island they have to obviously
throw in together. They have to share and cooperate, they
have to work together, lean on each other. They obviously
probably all know each other.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Oh yeah, they're probably all.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah. So this phraises a question on such a remote
and insular island, how the hell did someone's house go missing?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
That is a very good question. Oh and I forgot
I asked.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
It was a great question, Elizabeth. There's also no trees
on this island.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I couldn't imagine the zero.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Trees because the winds that whip across the eylander is
so severe. Nothing, there's no stuffing grows taller than like
a knee.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
It's like the hebrides.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Yeah, exactly. So there's nowhere to hide a house either.
You couldn't like stack the wood. Yeah. So back to Neville, Persia. Right.
So he bought his home on Tory Island in nineteen
eighty two. At the time, it was this six bedroom
stone walled house, one hundred and fifty years old, built
in the nineteenth century. Right. Over the years he lived there,
his children were born in the home. He and his
(11:27):
wife like they had young children. They're making a happy
home there. And this thing, the walls are like a
meter thick. Yeah, it's insane, right to keep warm and
all that. Right, So he decided to move away for
a while, As I said, for work he boarded up
his home, gave his key to his neighbor and told
them to look after the place while he and the
family are gone. Yeah, one point, for like three years,
during the time of New Zealand, he's down there on
(11:47):
this place called Stuart Island. He's fishing, he's he's hunting crayfish,
the island locals, he's helping them build their electrical power grid.
I'm like, you want to help out your own people anyway.
But life is good is my point, right, enjoying it.
Then in nineteen ninety he moves to Queenstown, New Zealand,
and there he finds work as a projectionist and he's like,
you know, he's a landscape architect gardener as well. Again,
(12:08):
life is good for him. And then in nineteen ninety four,
he decides to return home to Ireland. Right, he flew back,
he tracks across the island, he catches the ferry, he
heads home to remote Tory Island, and that's when he
sees it, right, or rather when he didn't see it.
So this fateful trip, when he discovered that his family
home was gone, Right, just a few pipes and maybe
an upside down tub were all the proof that his
(12:30):
home had ever been there? What the hell had happened
while he was away? Where was his house? Why had
no one contacted him? What had become of his once
happy home? Elizabeth? It's not like the house got up
and walked away, right, It's not like some giant came
along and picked up the house and like, I'm taking
this with me mccoon. Right, I'm wondering. You know, there's
some Gaelic story of like this, in these sleeping hills
(12:52):
lies a giant under a bed of grass. All right, well,
so how could one hundred and fifty year old stonehouse
up and disappear?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
I don't know?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
All right, Well I'm going to tell you. Please do first,
let's take a little break, and then after these messages
pulled fresh from the sea, I'll tell you. Right, that's
ask you, that's me. I'll tell you where Neville's house went.
It's a hell of a mystery.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Where we're back, Elizabeth, Yes we are.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
So we still got this missing Irish home.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yere.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
I've been trying to set up the mystery for you
because I really want you to be like, why are
the how could the such a big housees go? Right?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
The six bedrooms.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yeah, it's not small, and it's heavy, thick walls. I
mean like it's been there forever. Everyone knows it. Yeah,
and everyone knows him. What's the deal? So according to
the court filing, because I had to go and read
the actual court record to get all the details straight.
There were so many details, so many particulars, right, it
didn't all make sense. A bunch of people have the
same last name they're not related to, like the people
(14:08):
who sold him the home, and they had the same
name as the guy who screws up. It's a whole thing, right,
I know.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
If he was born on the island.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I don't know. I don't. I don't believe.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So do you understand this?
Speaker 3 (14:18):
He moved there?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
He Do you even have any concept of the deep
dive I'm about to do on this?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I do have a diver it so like I have
like itchy sious.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Oh you're about to get way more curious. Okay, So
where to begin? All right? The court papers? Okay, we
know that Neville left Tory Island, went to New Zealand,
and then while he was gone, in nineteen ninety two,
just before he comes back, a local man decided to
build a hotel Okay with the perfectly uninspiring name of
Tory Island Hotel.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Well, you know they got what new Town left town right.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Into the naming game the hotel. The man's name is
Patrick Deuhan, right, and he was known on the island
as the richest and most powerful man on this island
of one hundred and seventy right, this wind swept spit
of land in the North Atlantic. So Patrick Duhan, the
big Cheese, the big Wahoo. Which you know, it's interesting
because this island does have a king, okay, right, but
(15:14):
not an Irish king of olden times. No, it's a
purely ceremonial role that someone that they is something they
do for the tourists. And like whenever a tourists pop over,
and I mean like seriously, like, oh we found out
some tourists are coming over, they send the king down
to greet them when they get off the boat. So
the King's big jobs greet the newcomers to the island.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I need to get the fairies on this way. I
can hear it. I just heard the fog going, let's go.
So you gotta love a community that names the king
and their primary role is just greet strangers, like, none
of us want to talk to him. That's your job, king,
go out there. So, but the real power on this
island is Patrick Deuhan, Right, he wields the real scepter. Now,
this place is kind of like a Western, like as
I was reading it, like, imagine like if a Western
took place on the green, wind swept heights of a
(15:53):
remote Irish island. Right, the plot is basically the story
of a Western.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Like, For instance, when our hero returns to town, he
finds that his neighbors, who'd promised to look after his place,
instead used his home to curry favor with the richest
man in town, one Patrick Duhan, whoa yeah, you see Elizabeth.
According to the court paperwork back in ninety two, when
Patrick Duhan decided to build his hotel, he had to
hire workers and contract heavy equipment, and since there wasn't
(16:17):
yet a hotel for them to stay in, he needed
someplace to store the heavy equipment and to house his
construction workers. He happened to be building the hotel right
next door to where Nevill's house was, So the neighbors
were like, hey, why don't you use Nevill's house he's
not there, we'll just take the boards down. So that's
what they did. I don't know if money was exchanged,
but that's what they did. The neighbor lent them the key.
(16:38):
The construction workers moved into Nevill's home while that hotel
was built. That's always fun. Strangers staying in your home
while you're away. Do you have absolutely no idea that
it's happening? Would that freak you out?
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I don't like people house sitting for me. I don't
want people up in my hand.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
But you don't even know they're no, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
And then you got like, and the thing is, this
is before I don't have any well, don't tell, don't
tell us, simply safe.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
But I don't have any cameras in my.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Not anymore, not anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Well, and so anyway, I don't I don't. I don't
like that. But a lot of people have them. And
this is pre camera like that right before.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
So it's not like he could even keep an eye
on what's going on in the house.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
And it's not like no one's calling to tell him
that they're doing this.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So yeah, and everyone's just in your stuff, yeah, or
even if you've moved out yet, but.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
It's like, give your furniture and stuff. Maybe they left
some stuff. It's their home. They didn't take everything.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
They don't like that star So as.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
That's sounded cube, Yeah, the hotel's built right next door
to nevill'e hundred and fift year old stone walled home.
Right winter of nineteen ninety two rolls around. The hotel's
not done before the winter passes. In January of nineteen
ninety three, there's this calamity because on the fourteenth of
January there's this tremendous storm that hits the island. Winds
just whip across the island, just a wet ferocity Elizabeth.
(18:00):
In fact, a whole sheet of asbestos blew off of
Neville's house, like his roof, His roof has a sheet
of asbestos bull the houses nineteenth century. They're like, yeah,
well this stuff doesn't even burn. It's amazing. So after
the storm passes, the contractor and his workers attempt to
fix the damage. They're like, hey, we can do this.
You guys are in luck. So, you know, because if
(18:20):
anyone could, it's them. They got the equipment, you know,
it's everything right. So they pull out the heavy in
construction equipment, they hoist and balanced the new asbestos sheet
that they borrowed from the neighbors. They're like, oh, I
got an asbestos she I don't know how this works,
but like, I got an asbestos sheet.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
You know that it's a staple of their diet.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Is So they threw up the replacement sheet, except for
as they're lifting it apparently to position at atop the house,
it slipped and it broke. So now there's two broken
asbestos sheets. Now there's no roof.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Right, Maybe that's the good lord saying don't use asbestos.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Yeah, or don't use this poor man's home.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Because this is like ninety two.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
We knew this is what we were pulling it out,
so everywhere.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Else in the world they're pulling in, they're putting it in.
They're just getting the scribb.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
If you're not using that, we'll take it, send it
over to Tory Island care of Patrick Duhan. So this home
but no working roof. Now the construction workers are like,
I end a store totally, Like I can't stay here.
So they go and they check into the local hostele.
Apparently there's a hostel just this is the new hotel.
There's a hostile. So the half built hotel, right, isn't
(19:24):
an option, so they're staying in the hostel. It's either
that or tense. Right. So meantime, the contractor removes the
fuses from Nevill's house. I don't know why he did this.
I guess they're like, yeah, we're checking out, so they
took the fuses for it totally. But when you know it, Elizabeth,
that same day there was a fire in Neville's unoccupied home.
The fire burned and burned and destroyed much of the house.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
That doesn't feel like a coincidence, right, I.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Just thought that was interesting, like, oh, we check out
and then suddenly there's a fire. So if you were
wondering like I was wondering, mister Patrick Duhan was not
on the island. He just happened to get lucky that
this place burned down next to his hotel and nothing
happened to his hotel, So just got lucky. The next day,
the contractor for his hotel, John McGuinty, phones the Guardy
the Irish police and reports the fire. He does his
(20:07):
due diligence. He tells the cops that his heavy equipment,
some of it was burned a bunch of the crew's
fuel was involved in the fire.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
So like the fire department wasn't called. They just let
it burn through and the like we should tell someone.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
We'll call the cops and tell them, like they should
come out.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
And yes, last night big fire.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Like yeah, all of our fuel got burned.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
As wild it was nutsky.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And also this one hundred and fifty year old stone
walled home, it also burnshouse.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It is don't worry about that part.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Just after a storm. But you know what, no roof.
But somehow anyway, the local authorities they come out to
see this wrecked home and they determined that the fire
was an accident, not malicious, and then they contacted Neville
to let him know. So April twenty ninth, they took
their time. Nineteen ninety four, Neville receives not a phone call,
a letter in New Zealand. It's from the Donegal County Council.
(20:53):
The letter informs him, and I quote theater mister Preshow,
it has been brought to our attention that a building
owned by you Ontre Island isn't dan condition. There is
a new hotel being built adjacent to this building and
the owners are concerned that said building would be a
danger to the public as well as being unsightly see
attached photograph. Under the Derelic Sites Act of nineteen ninety,
Donegal County Council are required to take whatever action is
necessary to render this building safe. Storm damage has also
(21:16):
taken its toll with this building, and considerable damage has
been caused. I would be grateful if you could let
us know what intentions are regarding this property before we
proceed to enter the same on the Register of derelic Sites.
Your sincerely, four County Secretary.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
That's how you find that.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
That's how he finds out. Nobody calls him. He just
gets this. Your house is up site. It's an eye
sores you could get rid of. Like, what do you
do you want us to clear? Will clear it?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
You have four days?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah, So imagine just receiving that letter, Like you're you're
halfway around the world. It's nineteen nineties, so you have
to like now fly and jump. You can't just like
get on the internet and go to show me the house.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Right, So no phone calls. I said, storm ravaged the locals.
They're like, oh, yeah, we're trying to clear this before
someone gets sick, it's a health hazard or whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
They all got me sothelioma now exactly.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
And also he's got to be wondering if all this
stuff is strewn about like he's got there in the house.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, where's Yeah, And they don't mention a fire. No,
they're just like the kind of messed up totally.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
And then also there's the tone, like the fact that
you know your home is now littering our islands. To
deal with us. So July fifth, nineteen ninety four, Neville
returns home to Ireland to see what's left of his house.
But before he came home, he did the responsible thing.
He wrote a letter back to the Donegal County Council
telling them that he'd make arrangements to come back and
see what's what. And when he did make the trip,
(22:34):
he didn't go alone. Neville and his wife both flew
back and they took the faerry to Tory and they
were together when the fairy pulled into the Middletown Harbor.
But rather than tell you about it, Elizabeth, yeah, I'd
like you to close your eyes. Isaac would like you
to picture it, Elizabeth, Zah, do you feel that the
sea spray wetting your cheeks as cool salty water miss
(22:56):
against your face. So at the moment you are on
the ferry from dare Headed Totori Island. You stand beside
your husband, the documentary filmmaker, and the whole preshow. The
two of you have taken the ultra long trek from
New Zealand Ireland. It's been a tangle of missed connections
at airport, things you care to forget, and then of
course island hopping from your UK to Ireland. And now
(23:17):
finally you're almost at your house. You're on the ferry,
just minutes from home. You can see the cliffs of
the island. As the ferry draws closer, you approach the
harbor mouth, you can see Middletown. The fairy blows its
foghorn to let the dock workers know it's close. Your
husband gives your arm a squeeze. It's been such long trip.
You both cannot wait to be home. Your eyes search
(23:40):
the cliff. You keep looking, you scan the distance. You
should see it by now, it should be there, but
it is. You check the harbor mouth, you get your bearings.
You know well the side of your house as it
sits there serenely on the cliff, gazing out at the sea.
The stone walled home, with its meter thick walls, is
one of the oldest homes on the island. It's to
kind of a hundred and fifty year old home that
(24:01):
people say has personality. As you search the heights of
the island for sight of your home, a flood of
memories rushed through your mind. You recall the stormy seas
as you spied them from the homes lead glass windows.
You recall the sight of the fishing fleets putting out
to sea. You can practically hear the sound of the old,
creaky wood floors of the home under your feet. You
(24:23):
can imagine the smell of the spring on the breeze
as it blows lightly and sweetly in through an open window.
It's your beloved home and it's not there. How could
that be? You hear yourself say out loud to your husband, Neville.
He doesn't answer, because he's also trying to make sense
of the fact your home is gone. The fairy pulls
(24:43):
ever closer to the island, the one that's no longer home,
to your house. The foghorn blows low and slow again.
Elizabeth instead of their one hundred and fifty year old home.
What did they see? They saw the new hotel. Yeah,
that's what was there, hotel.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
And it's got to be disorienting because they're not used
to seeing that as part of the word.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
No, they don't even know it. So it's our house
bigger right. When they arrived on the island, the couple
had planned to stay in their own home. That's not
an option now obviously, so they thought they still had
a home to stay in because of the pictures of
the Donegal County Council sent them. They're like, oh, there's
some fire damage, right, but you know whatever, we can
get in there. But now there's just Patrick Duhan's new hotel.
(25:26):
There's nothing. Well, technically there is something because their home
is now the septic tank for the hotel. What Patrick
Duhan dug a big hole and put a septic tank.
So there's that, and then there's some pipes sticking out
of the ground where the house used to be. And
then there's a tub flipped over sitting right there.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
No.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, so well this is how he described it. Neville's
memory of this moment, he told the BBC quote, all
I saw was six inches of plastic piping sticking out
of the ground, which would have been my water supply.
There were large boulders surrounding my sit about eight feet
by two feet in size. Around the perimeter. My bath
was lying on the beach upside down. So that's what
he sees right now. Neville and his wife, they stay
(26:05):
with the neighbor who you know, was supposed to be
in charge of their house. Let's talk to this, and
they tried to make sense of what happened. They're like, hey,
what happened to the house? Right? So the neighbor's like, oh,
I'm tired, I'll tell you about it tomorrow. Dodge the
question so that on his own, Neville goes over to
the hotel, the new hotel. He stands around the front porch,
and while he's standing there, staring out from the hotels,
(26:26):
looking at where his home should be, all he sees
is the sea and he's like, huh. He pulls out
a camera snaps a photo from the front porch. Right
then he has that photo developed. Afterwards, he added a
silhouette over the picture of where his house would have been,
and he immediately saw the problem. His house blocked the
hotel's view of the ocean. So Neville went and confronted
(26:50):
the hotel's owner, the richest and most powerful man on
the island, Patrick Duhan, And Nevill asked him, what happened
to my home? Man? And did the storm it blew
off the roof? Yes? Right? But how did the start? Right?
And Patrick Duhan, he's like the villain from this western right.
So whind confronted, he's cock sure he knew he wasn't
on the island at the time. He can't be tied
to the crime if it was a crime. He also
(27:11):
knew he had the town wrapped around his finger. So
Douhan tells Neville, why don't you ask around and see
if you can find out who started the fire? All right?
Just a challenge like, see if anyone will tell you,
maybe they will know. Right. So Nevill does exactly that.
He went around Middletown, asked the locals what they knew
about his missing home. Anyone seen my house?
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Did they know how the fire started? Or did they
know who started the fire?
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Right?
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Neville quickly finds out that Tory Island is a lot
like the state of New Jersey. Nobody saw nothing.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Wait, and so hold on a second. The whole island
was like one hundred. It's like one hundred and seventy
people people, and there are four towns.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Yeah, so it's like, you know, forty in this town.
We're talking, Okay, So strangely nobody remembered the fire.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Yeah, in an island where not much happens, big storm
fire burns down a house right next to the new hotel.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
And is this one of the larger homes in town.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Yes, it's a six bits. Yes, it's a stately home.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
And so nobody remembered how it started and didn't remember
anything about it, right, and.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
They don't want their houses to burn down.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
But if they did say anything, it would be like
his neighbor who he was staying.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
With, look at the window, what happens?
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Yeah, exactly, It's like you must have seen it, right.
So this one, this neighbor, they originally sold them the home, right, like,
this used to be their house. So the same neighbor
who was supposed to take care of the bordered up home,
keep it safe, the same neighbor had lent the key
to the construction workers and said, oh, well, while you
were gone, I didn't see who started the fire either,
so they say. She says that she didn't, right, but
(28:41):
it's better than Elizabeth because the same neighbor did tell
Neville what she did see, or what she recalls. She said, Oh,
your house was sucked up in a whirlwind.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Oh yeah, those big stone homes.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
A whirlwind took your house like the Wizard of Oz
came to Ireland and just whooped up the big stone house.
Thick wall. So island, one hundred and forty one.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
People, no train in questions, nothing to do.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
No one saw nothing, of course not so yeah. But
then one of the locals did tell Neville it'd be
better for him if he didn't ask who started the fire.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Oh, man, don't ask questions.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Yet now he's catching stray threats. So Nevill's mind is
reeling from the sudden, shocking disappearance of his home. He's
despairing about what to do, and no one seems willing
to help him. His former neighbors. Finally, out of sheer
desperation in September of that same year, Neville contacts the police,
and they'd already investigated the fire because they determined it
wasn't arson. They said it was not malicious.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Remember, okay, so it was that did they figure out.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Back when the contractor, John McGinty called, Remember the day
after the fire, when the guard a came out, So
they've already investigated this fire. Yeah, so they were like, oh, yeah, no,
we've checked it. You know.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So what did they say at the time? It was
They just said it.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Was an accident. Remember it said it wasn't malice.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
It was just classified as oops.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yeah, I know that was their term. It wasn't malice,
It wasn't malicious, It wasn't intentional, said they weren't. He
didn't say. So. Neville keeps asking around, investigating on his own.
Eventually speaks with McGuinty, the contractor, the guy who's building
the twelve room hotel for Patrick Duhan, big man on
the island right, and he tells Nevill that Douhan offered
him a thousand pounds to demolish the house. This was
(30:18):
before the fire, before the storm, This was early, This
was early in construction. McGuinty the contractor, was like, well,
I can do that, but I can't just knock down
a house because you don't like it. I need to
find out who owns it. So he didn't try very
hard to do that, apparently, because then the fire happened
and then boom problem solved. What a stroke of irish look.
So after the fire, Dowhann paid the contractor to clear
(30:39):
the debris and rubble, and the county signed off on
it because it's you know, and I saw I remember
the letter they said to Neville. So Dowhann is building's
twelve room hotel on the island. And then there's Neville,
the documentary filmmaker who's not there. He's overseas god knows where.
You can kind of hear how the locals will be like, oh,
we got to look out for the twelve room hotel,
guy richest man on the island instead of some guy
who's making films in New Zealand, right, some guy.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Who buys a very large home. And then just like
kicks off. So they're thinking like, oh, look at you
fancy lad, which you can do. Plus with the county
interceding like they're not on the island, they're on the mainland.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
They're responsible. Yeah, they have to send people, have to
send people out to gate.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
But so in their mind I can only imagine they're
thinking like, oh my god, it's another thing.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Out of the Yeah, we don't like that. Do you
want to go take the boat out. I'm not taking
the boat out this time Yetah. So no. Also, forget
that it's one hundred and fifty year old home. It
was also his life saving so he's a documentary filmmaker.
He didn't know a lot of money. He put all
his money to buy this home. Right, it's is all.
It's a profit from his life's work and now it's
all gone, right And essentially, no, it's not all gone now.
It's a car park because that's what Douhand is using
(31:44):
the lot for, is just parking excess cars because he guys,
remember he mentioned the giant stones. There's these giant white
stones that are put at the end of the by
the cliffs so the tourist won't drive off the edge,
all right, So that's what there is. There's a septic tank,
there's a couple of boulders. He's got a car park.
That's where home. Yeah. So Neville's sensitive artist type and
being such, this is a shock to his system. It's
(32:06):
too much for his constitution to bear. As he would
later say, it was like a switch had flicked in
my mind. So he fills this constant ache inside of him.
He has this twisting knot in his gut. He decides
to take matters into his own hands. He travels over
to Dublin. He and his wife. They go to the
office of the land Registry. They want to get the
records on their home and they found that the folio
for their home was missing. What yeah, that was sketch
(32:28):
in Dublin. So Neville's like, okay, now I need to
get a lawyer. So he goes and gets a lawyer.
He calls a solicitor he knew a man who'd been
his lawyer before, a man he'd known for at least
a decade. He felt like, this guy will help him.
He contacts his lawyer friend and the guy said, no,
I can't help you. He refuses to take the case.
Something is now definitely going on, and that's when he
turned to the bottle. His wife didn't know what to
(32:51):
do to pull him around. Eventually she leaves. Neville's now
alone in Ireland, with no home, no one to help him,
and then he has a real breakdown. In the middle
of that freak, he sends a letter to the police,
because when you're having a breakdown, it's definitely important to
contact the police. That always, that's a great.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Idea here in America.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
They'll come out and shoot you for free.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
They'll take care of it.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yeah, yeah, totally. I doubt the guarde are so quick
to shoot people in Ireland, but you know, I bet
it's still not a good idea to contact the police
when you're having a breakdown. Anyway, it turns out I'm right,
because they send this cop, a sergeant freel he's like
out there, he's dealing with Neville, and he remembers this
letter that Nevill sent and in the letter, Neville said
he wanted the investigation closed. He chosen to forgive whoever
(33:31):
burned the house. Right, So the same sergeant he writes
up a report about Neville's request, and in his report,
the sergeant notes that I had a very peculiar conversation
with Neville, right, So he's basically saying about how Nevill's
you know, Neville mentioned he had a premonition that the
roof was going to blow off his house, and they're like, oh, okay, whatever,
So when it happened, he wasn't terribly surprised. In fact,
he called it an act of God to the cops
(33:53):
to the guarde. They were like, okay, whatever, mate, it's
your home. H Art was be on your way then, okay,
so there you go. Let's take a little break ye
with Yeah, when we get back, I will let the
house reappear somewhat what we're back, Elizabeth, Hey, I promise
(34:29):
that my man Neville would get some justice. He'd get
his house back right now. Remember I said he felt
like his roof blowing off was an act of God,
and that's what he felt that started this whole grizzly affair.
And you know how God can be, you know, like
before any earthly justice happens, my man Neville has his
breakdown to get through, as I told you, And so
in September of nineteen ninety four, he goes to get help.
(34:50):
He goes to a general practitioner, you know like a GP,
and who then refers him to a psychiatrist. And then
he meets up with a psychiatrist. This cat diagnoses Neville
bipolar and that's why he's having his breakdown. So then
the psychiatrist that has a Neville admitted to a psychiatric
hospital prescribes him heavy medication and basically locks him up
and throws away the key. So now at this point
(35:12):
Neville has lost his home, his family, his sanity, and
now his freedom. Yeah yeah, all because he bought a house. Yeah,
he's rather afraid he won't ever be let out of
this psychiatric hospital. Sure right, So in because some hotel
owner on a tiny robot island wanted a better.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
View, make a car toon.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
He just wanted a better view.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Developer villain, huh exactly.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
So the next year his wife goes down, she gets ill. Now,
since Neville's still in the psychiatric hospital, when his wife
takes seriously ill, the young kids have no one to
take care of them. They go into state care.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Well in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Yeah, so you know, and now he's at rock bottom.
Neville he had to look up to see rock bottom.
That's how far Neville has fallen. He's done nothing wrong,
so he would later tell a judge that he wanted
to end it all, but I just didn't have the
courage to do it. So this is a man who,
by the way, an award winning, internationally acclaimed documentarian. That's
his life. And now he's just fully broken and he's
(36:06):
not even sure what has happened or why or like
is it personal or like what is going on? He
knows he's lost damn near everything in his life and
he doesn't know why.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
He's like an.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Irish country song. So this this is a bit of
a bummer, right, But when I say it may sound funny.
I don't know. He sounds funny to me, but don't laugh.
Five years later, Neville's still in the psychiatric hospital and
they're giving him electroshock therapy and he's wondering where it
all went wrong. Oh my god, with the electrodes attached
to his head and whatnot. Lying they're about to get
another ridiculous jolt of electricity to carom. He's betting, am
(36:38):
I God? So a curse?
Speaker 4 (36:40):
Like?
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Am I just the Irish job? What is going on?
What is happening? So Nevill finally pulls himself together enough
to get out of the psychiatric care. Now he's back
out in the world. He goes right back to trying
to find out what happened to his house. I mean
like right back. Yeah. If he's gonna lose everything, he
wants to know why. He deserves to know why and
who did this.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
To I think another option would be to go to
New Zealand and go take care of your kids and
just leave them.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Reasonable, Elizabeth, Yes, this is a man who's now been
he's been made to focus because everything's been taken, and
he wants to know why everything because everything's been you know,
his kids have already been harmed. You know, yes he
can go and help them, but first he's like, I
need to know why my kids were harmed, so I
can at least. I guess that's his thing. I don't know.
So now the question is was it really the obvious
(37:27):
villain Douhand the hotel hea or did someone else on
the island secretly hate him and he had the time
to get justice because at this point, as I remember,
he's pretty much unemployable. He's in his forties, he's got
nothing else to do, so he goes right back to
the island. He's basically, you know, as I said, been
broken by his dream of owning a home in Ireland.
And so now he's like, at least I'm getting justice,
(37:49):
but I'll have you know, worry not, Elizabeth. He does
get justice. In two thousand. He returns to Tory, and
even though he'd been told to let it go, he
starts asking around again people are like, are you still
on nuts? So there, you know, he's asking him, like
what happened that faithful night? And then nobody once again
nobody saw nothing. Still nobody saw nobody will help them. Yeah,
So a year later he tries a different approach. He
(38:10):
goes right to Patrick Douhan himself and he tries to
strike a deal. So in August of twenty and one,
he writes a letter to Douhan asking him to remove
two of the large white stones that are still on
his property.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, he owns that land, owns the lot right, and.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
There may be nothing there, but he owns the lands.
He's like, get them off. They're on my land without
my permission. So then Dowhan's like, you know, he had
them for his car park. So the next day Douhan
writes a back of letter dar Neville further to our
conversation in the clubhouse last night, I everget that I
didn't come across the copyfacts from Donegall County Council, but
I can confirm that I cleared the road from rock
and stones and debris to make the road passable as
(38:44):
instructed by Donegal County Council. You are sincerely Pat Douhan.
So they're trying to be all businesslike, right, which is
like this is not quite right, okay, like letters back
and forth if they love letters. So apparently these two
men then had a chat about their adjoining properties, because
I remember they're right next to each other. They're hanging
out in the clubhouse at night, and they must have been,
you know, kept talking because we know in September this
(39:07):
that previously was in August. Now in September, Neville publishes
in the Dairy People section of the Donegal News his
public notice of an application to the Planning Authority, and
in its states, I never Press show am applying for
a planning permission for the erection of a two story
replacement dwelling at Middletown, Torrey Island. Blah blah blah. Yeah,
and then he's like me, the undersigned Neville and Pe
(39:28):
Douhan do here by this day two thousand and one
enter into a binding agreement why Pe dohand will secure
the land rights to the area shown shaded for Nevill
Press Show, and will assign to him the land rights
and ownership of that area. In pursuance I Nevill Press
Show will simultaneously assign the land rights and ownership of
the land known as blah blahah. So they're gonna do
a land swap. He's gonna buy a new lot. And
then he's like, i'll give you my lot if you
(39:49):
go buy me a lot. Interesting, right, So it's just
a straight swap transaction. Yeah, now signed witness, they put
they put it in the paper, so now everybody knows.
It's like, okay, we'll do hand's doing right by him, right, Yeah,
So Elizabeth, it's not quite justice though, right, you know,
justice is what's called for. So cut to two years later,
the land swap deal did not work out. No new
(40:10):
home was constructed for Neville. In fact, things actually had
turned icy and cold, because in June of two thousand
and three, Nevill writes yet another letter, this time sent
by registered mail because it's like a legal letter. So
it's like I want to know that you received it.
And this letter once again, these letter right in irishmen.
It goes, dear Patrick. When I met you on Torre
(40:31):
Island December of two thousand and one, we both signed
a legally binding document in which you were to acquire
a site marked on the island exchange for you acquiring
my house site. As I've not heard from you since
we signed that document. Then I wrote to you and
again received no response. You are hereby advised to expedite
this matter within the next twenty one days. Failure to
do so will result in this issue being taken out
of my hands. So now we're going to court. Yeah, so, Elizabeth,
(40:53):
what do you think happened next? Do you think? Stop
trying to think? I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Okay, you don't have to tell me to stop trying.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
To think, wrote another letter, even though he received no
response to the previous letter. His final letter, dated August
sports two thousand and three, included a one hundred euros
that he sent back because apparently he borrowed the money
from Douhan and he wanted he gets straight before he
took him to court.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Even years later, exactly after.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
The Neville hires a new lawyer, he takes the matter
back to the Guarde and then that same month, August
of two thousand and three, Neville contacts the police. He
complains that he's having all sorts of trouble with his neighbor,
the owner of the hotel, one Patrick Duhan. So the
detective it gets sent out from the mainland. This detective.
He meets with Neville, He's like, tell me the story.
A complaint gets recorded. The detective starts an investigation. He
(41:41):
goes around investigating. He's scouring the island for information. He's
like talking to everybody. He interviews countless locals just to
see what they know about the case. If they remember
the fire, they remember the storm, and do you remember
how the house disappeared?
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah? Remember that.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Yeah. Detective found that no one would speak to the police,
not a single person in this place. The detective then
spoke with the contractor, John McGuinty, who is legally tied
to this. He refuses to comment. He's like, I'm not
talking to the police, so that's a bit suss and
but he did confirm his prior testimony. He's like, remember
when I said years back, whatever I said, that's it.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Yeah, So they're like, okay now. Patrick Duhan, the hotel owner,
he also refuses to cooperate with this investigation, but he
provided a memo of his understanding of what occurred. He's like,
this is what I remember. Here we go, it's all
on paper. The detective reads the memo and goes, well,
I guess there's no case. No charges are filed. Four
years later.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
It fift.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
In two thousand and seven, Neville came back to the
guard A one more time. He refined his official complaint,
this time about the lack of justice he received. He's
just complaining about the cops. Now, you guys blew it. Yeah,
the guard as said, up, sorry, too much time has passed.
Where they go, how about this, We'll split the difference.
We'll do a fresh new investigation. So they send out
(42:57):
another cop. But there's now two sets crimes because there
was the fire, was or was it not? Ourson? And
then there was the home disappearing, which is a second crime.
Is that theft? Is that fraud? Is it illegal dumping?
What is that?
Speaker 4 (43:09):
Right?
Speaker 3 (43:09):
So two thousand and seven the guard a attempt to
reinvestigate the fire and the home theft back in nineteen
ninety three, the subsequent disappearance of the home and no
one on the tiny island. Remembering, there was one big
problem with all of this. All of the original officers
had retired. By now none of the original records are
available for the case. There isn't any record that the
(43:29):
GUARDE had ever even visited the crime scene back in
ninety three or ninety four, No photographs, nothing, only what
the county those photographs they sent to Neville. That's it.
Luckily Neville still had those photos, so he gave them
to the police and he said, here's your evidence. They're like, oh, okay, thanks.
So the police they see these piles of broken, burnt
building material, the debris, the trash.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
They're like, okay.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
So back in nineteen ninety four when remember Sergeant Friel
was handling the case and Neville told him to drop
the charges. Yeah, and there'd been no conclusive evidence that
the richest man on the island had done anything. However,
there was evidence that he had paid Donegal City Council
to clear the debris. So there's this paper trail. The
cops they start putting it together. They're like, well, what's this.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Yeah for it exactly.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Lacking any forensic evidence, the Guarda decide once again not
to pursue charges. Yeah, and then Neville asked them also
not to do that. So now a decade later he
changes his mind. They're like, that's kind of weird, but
he's like, well, I didn't want to charge anyone. And
now here comes Neville again. The guardia like, so, what's
the deal, who did it? Why are you so mad?
So they basically start questioning him. So he's like, I'm
not getting justice this way. So what does he do?
(44:32):
He gets himself a lawyer who's not a friend. He
files a civil lawsuit. He's gonna take it to the court.
If nobody will get him justice, maybe a judge will
do it. Yeah, Finally he finds someone who'll take his
story of his missing home seriously. Most of the people
act like it's a joke, like, oh, tell me about
your home, right he did it up and walk away? Right,
So this cop sees it as a crime, not a
(44:54):
big cosmic joke, right. Yea. The High Court Justice Roderick
Murphy here's his case, listens two months of testimony, gathers evidence.
The judge eventually rules. Now, before I tell you the ruling,
I want to read the judge's own words from the
court documents, because, and I quote on the evidence before me,
it appears that, by reason of his mental illness, the
(45:14):
plaintiff was incapable from the date of a cruel of
the cause of action, at least to the date of
his instructions of his solicitor which resulted in the letter
of twenty third December two thousand and three of functioning
to a degree that would enable him to protect his
legal rights in relation to his property as a reasonable
man would do so. Basically, the judge is like, he
was out of his gazebo. He couldn't protect his house. Yeah,
which is great that somebody finally sees sastic. Then the
(45:36):
judge offers up his ruling, having heard the evidence and
considered the submissions on the merits of the case. The
court is satisfied that the second name defendant hasn't continues
to trespass on the plaintiff's property. Well, yeah, so the
judge orders Patrick Deuhan to either buy Neville a suitable
and comparable home on the island Whoa, or to pay
him sixty nine thousand dollars as restitution and damages for
(45:58):
disappearing Nevill's home. Finally Neville gets justice, but he'd still
lost so much.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
This isn't really justice.
Speaker 3 (46:05):
I mean, but he gets his wife and his family back,
he gets his sanity backs, he gets his freedom back.
It's like playing a country song and reverse. Now, now
he did lose his spot in the world, where he
gets on his front porch and watch the fishermen go
out into the sea or tack back into the harbor.
You know, he didn't get to have that. So with
the remuneration, he couldn't afford to buy a home on
Tory Island because now it become too valuable. Right, So
(46:27):
you know, he'd lost his one hundred and fifty year
old home and he doesn't have the sixty nine thousand
won't buy him a house. Or as he put it
in I quote, you could buy a really nice chicken
coop without sort of money, but you'd have no money
left over to buy the chickens. So, being the rich
jerk that he is, of course, Patrick Duhand appeals the ruling.
Of course, Now do you think he claws back the justice.
(46:48):
Probably he tries to get out of paying. He's like, no,
it's only worth like ten or twelve thousand dollars, that's
his counterclaim. It goes all the way to the Irish
Supreme Court. Really, yes, the court rules in Neville's face.
Dewhan didn't even have the stones turn up in court.
His appeal was tossed and Neville got to keep his.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
Modicum of justice, thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
So Elizabeth. What's a ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Don't leave your home in the care of another. That's
my takeaway. What about you?
Speaker 3 (47:17):
Oh man, it's just that, Like as I said, I
kept saying, it's like running me of a Western Yeah.
So my whole point of this is basically, people are
people everywhere. They always do the thing, but you're gonna
sight with the rich person because it's in their best
interests because he's gonna bring more to the island. And
then this documentary filmmaker who's like doing things or trying
to like document he did a documentary about someone trying
(47:38):
to save Irish culture and they're like, not that bozo, right,
So they're like they're not gonna help them. I'm like,
here's so this guy is telling stories about people trying
to save Irish culture. He doesn't even get to keep
his no, but what do they do. They're like one
guy's like, hey, who wants an Airbnb on on Tory?
Oh there you go. I find that ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
It is ridiculous. Good takeaway.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
He in the mood for a talk back to watch
this all back?
Speaker 1 (48:01):
Oh yes, please, what do you got for us? Oh?
Speaker 3 (48:08):
God? He see that.
Speaker 4 (48:12):
I went, hey, everyone. This is Asher from Southeast Missouri.
In the last episode, the Vegan One, Zarren mentioned that
they basically gone girled themselves. Wanted to tell you a
little thing about the movie Gone Girl and the crimes
that surrounded at least the restaurants that were in the movie.
(48:36):
I thought you would like to know that all of
those restaurants were the actual names of the places here
in town, and they ended up being shut down because
the owner of them was one of the local surgeons
and was committing fraud by requiring all of his surgeries
to use equipment exclusively sold by his wife. So sadly
(48:59):
none of them existed. The bar still has to sign up.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
Though, incredible Gone eats exactly.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
Thank you for that one.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
As always, you can go on to the iHeart app
downloaded record a talkback just like that. Maybe we'll hear
your voice here and also we uh you know, we'd
like to hear from you, so reach out talk to
us on the Ridiculous Crime. The social media is we
are on Instagram and blue Sky. We have a Ridiculous
Crime website ridiculous Crime dot com. Please you can check
that out or Ridiculous Crime at gmail. Dot com send
(49:34):
us an email and if you do, please start it. Hey,
producer d That's all we got for you. Thanks for listening.
We will catch you next. Crime Ridiculous Crime is hosted
by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnette, produce and edited by
the man who co wrote These Irish Eyes are Smiling
(49:55):
Dave Coucy and starring Analys Rucker as Oh Judith. Research
is by Miss House investigators Marissa Brown and Alex French.
Our theme song is by our house band, The Kings
of Torrey, Ireland, Thomas o'lee and Travis o' dutton. The
hosts wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair and
makeup by Sparkleshot and Mister London. Executive producers are Ben
(50:16):
call Me Danny Boy from House of Payne Bolin and
Noel You know They're not from Boston Row we.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Cry say it one more time.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
Crime Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Four more podcasts.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
My Heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous crime.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
How you doing, I'm good?
Speaker 1 (00:08):
How about you?
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Good?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Listen? You know what's late?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
No, I got a question for you. Don't jump on
my horse.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I was gonna try and mess you up.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Do you know it's ridiculous?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I do, I do. I have a mashup for you. Look,
I just come right out of the gate.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Oh you didn't surprise me. There's that I'm standing, just
came up, slapped me right in the face with like
a fish.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Listen, I'll give you one part of it, Taco Bell.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Okay, I'm done.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And then what would be your nightmare mashup? Taco Bell
and some sex toys? Oh heavens, Oh my goodness, pro gets.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
It Taco Bell and give me another.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Okay, radio shack, give me closer, not dew.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
No, I'll tell you they already have it. They go
hand in hand with the bay Ham Lease all right, listen.
In Vidia so and Vidia is partnering with Taco Bell.
Actually young brands their parents company to streamline the drive
through experience.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
So they're going to AI, they drive through experience.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, they're going to dose AI.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So it's gonna help with like I'm not really actually
sure I was.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Reading through this.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's going to do something in terms of suggesting specific
menu items to customers to take a short time to prepare.
They're like, oh, you came here for this item.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Something else?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
What about this? They just a slop that we put
in a bucket already.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
All exactly so other like McDonald's tried this, it failed
because apparently, my.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Favorite part about this is like McDonald's.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
They partnered with IBM and they killed the project in
twenty twenty four because quote, the technology was taking drive
through orders. The change came after numerous customers on social
media bemoaned wildly incorrect additions to orders, from nine Sweet
Teas to pats of butter. So it's like it becomes sentient,
(02:18):
and it becomes a teenager messing with you. Yes, and
it's not like, oh, the teenager who always puts like
an extra nugget in there.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
That's not good. It's not good AI, it's Ai AI.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
No.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
So anyway, everyone's all jazzed about this partnership.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So next time when you go, I guess it's not
just Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut under the Young
Brand's umbrella.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Thank goodness. None of those are brands I go to.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I know, but next time you're there, next time you're
at a KFC.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Drive through at the airport.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, we'll see what AI does for you.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, and that is ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I'll give you that. That is ridiculous. You sit back down.
I got a question for you. Have you ever been like,
heading home, you drive to the wrong house.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Oh, Georgia's wrong house.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, like like you know, like maybe a different house
you used to live at.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Actually no, although when I moved into the house that
I live in now, for about a month, I couldn't
remember which driveway.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Was mine as I was pulling in.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I'd oftentimes go to turn into the driveway before mine
and be like, oh no, no, I'm in the next house.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Wow, that's the special.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I'm very special.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, but I've done that kind of automatic driving where
you get in the car to go somewhere and you
realize you're going in the wrong direction you meant to go.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Yeah, I've had a lot of friends do that. I'd
have never done that because it's just not my way,
but I'm always surprised when my friends do it. I'm like,
are we going to your old place.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, going to the old place where like it Sometimes
like you get in the car and you want to
go to the store, but you find yourself driving to work.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Oh yeah, I've done that one either. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I said, I'm special.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
It's got to be fun. Now, imagine if you drove
home one day and your home just wasn't there. That's
you think for a moment, I must be in the
wrong place, right, Yeah, but you're not. You're not wrong.
Your house should be there and it's not. It's gone.
Oh like, was your home stolen?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
It's like empty lot.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
What do you do when when someone makes your whole
house disappear?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Sarah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
That's what's happened to this Irish dude, Elizabeth that I'd
like to tell you about today.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I would like you for you to tell me about it.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
You're ready for what I'm calling the case of the
Missing Irish Home.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yes, I'm ready for that.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
heist and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free
and one hundred percent ridiculous nutragious. I Elizabeth Sar, I'd
like to introduce you to my man Neville Presshow hello, Now.
My man Neville was a civil engineer, a documentary filmmaker,
(05:11):
a married man, father of young children, also a homeowner
in Ireland. We'll get into that in a second now.
As a documentary filmmaker, my man Neville had co written,
directed produced multiple documentaries, internationally acclaimed, award winning. One of
them was rather prescient for his own life. It was
his nineteen eighty one documentary called Desecration. Ok. It was
(05:32):
about this amateur archaeologist on an Irish island. The amateur
archaeologist is focused on preserving this crumbling medieval castle, right,
he just throws his lot in. He's like, oh, I'm
going to be the one to save this bit of history.
But some locals on the island have a different idea.
They're like, nah, no, no, no, no, we got something else.
We want to dig under the crumbling castle because it's
(05:54):
no longer good for anything or anyone. So you know
what they wanted to dig Elizabeth a mine. They're like, yeah,
there's some pressure medals underneath the castle. So guess who
won the miners? If you said amateur archaeologist, you win
the no prize. He lost so one day his own
life would mirror this life of this amateur archaeologist. He
(06:14):
made a documentary about so, like, what's the deal, what
happened to this poor bloke Neble?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
What happened?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Well, it was July nineteen ninety four. A fairy was
pulling up to the Island of Tory.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Like a boat, ferry, not like a sprite.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah yeah, not like a brownie a sprite, like a
floating a vessel exactly. You could buy a ticket for it,
ticket to ride, not that kind of fairy. So Nevill's
on the ferry and he's playing a game A lot
of us have played a little game I like to
call I can see my house from here right, So
the there he is. He's scanning the island of Tory.
And this is a tiny island. I mean, this is
(06:46):
like less than two hundred people live on this island.
And if you're wondering where it is, it's off the
Irish coast. It's up there at the top of the
Emerald Isle. It's on the north side, near letter Kenny
and Londonderry or Dairry Erry Jerry. I know there's two names,
though I looked on the map there's one name. Well anyway,
the island is Arry. It's not only tiny, but it's
also Hella remote, right, So Neville he'd been gone for
(07:07):
about eight years, and he left in eighty six because
I'm not sure if you knew this, but eighty six
there's a big exodus of Irish laborers, about twenty eight
thousand of his countrymen all left because the economy went
in the tank. So he, after this bad economic downturn,
went down to New Zealand for work. So he's down
in New Zealand, other side of the world right now,
in nineteen ninety four. He's excited to return home. So
(07:29):
he's scanning the island. He's looking for his house, he's
checking the cliffs. But it's not there, Elizabeth. Instead, there's
just this big blank space right where his home should be.
There's no doubt about it. His home's gone, like the
world's worst magic trick. So what happened? Where was my
man Neville's home? The question is, Elizabeth, how did this happen?
Not what or why? But how? And to answer that
(07:49):
we must first answer the question I lied, why why
does this happen? It's fun So to answer that, I
need to tell you about Tory Island. You ever heard
of it? No, I had not, I never, I didn't
even know it was part of Ireland. But Tory Island,
like I said, located off the north coast. Was it
formed by the British Conservative Party The Tories no, spelled
(08:10):
differently t o r y. They're like the t r E.
I guess that's plural. Never mind. Yeah, so Elizabeth, it's
not in the British area. It's Irish Irish, right, okay,
Tory Island, known by the locals as Tory is this
as they.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Said, it's not part of Northern Ireland.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
No, it's part part of Ireland. Yeah, okay, part of
the Republic. And it's located just off the County Donegal
in northwest of Ulster in the Republic of Ireland. Right
and a gay Electori means a place of steep rocky heights.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Right. So the island, as I said, sits in the
North Atlantic, which, as you know, it means rough waters.
And like there's that ferry that I mentioned that serves
the island. But due to the rough seas, services isn't
year round, Like you can't get to the island year round.
So in the winter. The locals if they want to
leave or there's an emergency, they have to rely on
this like four seedar helicopter to like ferry them back,
which means, you know, if I live there, I wouldn't
(09:00):
leave Tory Island between November and April cause there's no
way you're getting me on that middle chopper.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Well, and you play the game of I can see
my house from there on those ferry rides. I play
the game of like eye on the horizon, you will
not vomit Eye on the horizon, you will.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
That's right. You get season, get emotion sickness.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Yeah, yeah, any motion sickness.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
That's me.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
That's fun right, so fun yea. And I used to
make like a friend of mine like get carsick when
I would read in the car because he could just
imagine that and then he would get carsick. So anyway,
as I sold you Tory Island lightly populated. Now, Elizabeth,
you want to guess how many people live in.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Tory lightly populated. I can't imagine it's very large.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I don't know. I'm going to put it at two
fifty pretty good guests.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
In twenty twenty two, the Census reported there were one
hundred and forty one people living in Tory now. Best
estimates I've seen for recently the last couple of years
is one hundred and seventy, so they've picked up a few.
So one hundred and seventy weary souls live in four towns.
There's East Town, Westtown, Middletown, and New Town.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Oh love, yeah, so those four times.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
It is right.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
They got the one hundred and seventy people. But for
those hundred and seventy people, there's no power plant, so
they all the electrical power and you know, keeping the
lights on comes down to three diesel generators. Oh yeah,
which is just wild. So that the three diesel generators
they churn and burn through about five hundred liters of
fuel every day. That's one hundred and thirty two gallons
of fuel for every day.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You know, they have windmills, what's up right now?
Speaker 3 (10:27):
So this is how they keep the bleak and the
cold at their door, these three diesel generators for everyone. Right,
So the residents of Torrey Island they have to obviously
throw in together. They have to share and cooperate, they
have to work together, lean on each other. They obviously
probably all know each other.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Oh yeah, they're probably all.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah. So this phraises a question on such a remote
and insular island, how the hell did someone's house go missing?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
That is a very good question. Oh and I forgot
I asked.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
It was a great question, Elizabeth. There's also no trees
on this island.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I couldn't imagine the zero.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Trees because the winds that whip across the eylander is
so severe. Nothing, there's no stuffing grows taller than like
a knee.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
It's like the hebrides.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Yeah, exactly. So there's nowhere to hide a house either.
You couldn't like stack the wood. Yeah. So back to Neville, Persia. Right.
So he bought his home on Tory Island in nineteen
eighty two. At the time, it was this six bedroom
stone walled house, one hundred and fifty years old, built
in the nineteenth century. Right. Over the years he lived there,
his children were born in the home. He and his
(11:27):
wife like they had young children. They're making a happy
home there. And this thing, the walls are like a
meter thick. Yeah, it's insane, right to keep warm and
all that. Right, So he decided to move away for
a while, As I said, for work he boarded up
his home, gave his key to his neighbor and told
them to look after the place while he and the
family are gone. Yeah, one point, for like three years,
during the time of New Zealand, he's down there on
(11:47):
this place called Stuart Island. He's fishing, he's he's hunting crayfish,
the island locals, he's helping them build their electrical power grid.
I'm like, you want to help out your own people anyway.
But life is good is my point, right, enjoying it.
Then in nineteen ninety he moves to Queenstown, New Zealand,
and there he finds work as a projectionist and he's like,
you know, he's a landscape architect gardener as well. Again,
(12:08):
life is good for him. And then in nineteen ninety four,
he decides to return home to Ireland. Right, he flew back,
he tracks across the island, he catches the ferry, he
heads home to remote Tory Island, and that's when he
sees it, right, or rather when he didn't see it.
So this fateful trip, when he discovered that his family
home was gone, Right, just a few pipes and maybe
an upside down tub were all the proof that his
(12:30):
home had ever been there? What the hell had happened
while he was away? Where was his house? Why had
no one contacted him? What had become of his once
happy home? Elizabeth? It's not like the house got up
and walked away, right, It's not like some giant came
along and picked up the house and like, I'm taking
this with me mccoon. Right, I'm wondering. You know, there's
some Gaelic story of like this, in these sleeping hills
(12:52):
lies a giant under a bed of grass. All right, well,
so how could one hundred and fifty year old stonehouse
up and disappear?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
I don't know?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
All right, Well I'm going to tell you. Please do first,
let's take a little break, and then after these messages
pulled fresh from the sea, I'll tell you. Right, that's
ask you, that's me. I'll tell you where Neville's house went.
It's a hell of a mystery.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Where we're back, Elizabeth, Yes we are.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
So we still got this missing Irish home.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yere.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
I've been trying to set up the mystery for you
because I really want you to be like, why are
the how could the such a big housees go? Right?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
The six bedrooms.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yeah, it's not small, and it's heavy, thick walls. I
mean like it's been there forever. Everyone knows it. Yeah,
and everyone knows him. What's the deal? So according to
the court filing, because I had to go and read
the actual court record to get all the details straight.
There were so many details, so many particulars, right, it
didn't all make sense. A bunch of people have the
same last name they're not related to, like the people
(14:08):
who sold him the home, and they had the same
name as the guy who screws up. It's a whole thing, right,
I know.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
If he was born on the island.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I don't know. I don't. I don't believe.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So do you understand this?
Speaker 3 (14:18):
He moved there?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
He Do you even have any concept of the deep
dive I'm about to do on this?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I do have a diver it so like I have
like itchy sious.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Oh you're about to get way more curious. Okay, So
where to begin? All right? The court papers? Okay, we
know that Neville left Tory Island, went to New Zealand,
and then while he was gone, in nineteen ninety two,
just before he comes back, a local man decided to
build a hotel Okay with the perfectly uninspiring name of
Tory Island Hotel.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Well, you know they got what new Town left town right.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Into the naming game the hotel. The man's name is
Patrick Deuhan, right, and he was known on the island
as the richest and most powerful man on this island
of one hundred and seventy right, this wind swept spit
of land in the North Atlantic. So Patrick Duhan, the
big Cheese, the big Wahoo. Which you know, it's interesting
because this island does have a king, okay, right, but
(15:14):
not an Irish king of olden times. No, it's a
purely ceremonial role that someone that they is something they
do for the tourists. And like whenever a tourists pop over,
and I mean like seriously, like, oh we found out
some tourists are coming over, they send the king down
to greet them when they get off the boat. So
the King's big jobs greet the newcomers to the island.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I need to get the fairies on this way. I
can hear it. I just heard the fog going, let's go.
So you gotta love a community that names the king
and their primary role is just greet strangers, like, none
of us want to talk to him. That's your job, king,
go out there. So, but the real power on this
island is Patrick Deuhan, Right, he wields the real scepter. Now,
this place is kind of like a Western, like as
I was reading it, like, imagine like if a Western
took place on the green, wind swept heights of a
(15:53):
remote Irish island. Right, the plot is basically the story
of a Western.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Like, For instance, when our hero returns to town, he
finds that his neighbors, who'd promised to look after his place,
instead used his home to curry favor with the richest
man in town, one Patrick Duhan, whoa yeah, you see Elizabeth.
According to the court paperwork back in ninety two, when
Patrick Duhan decided to build his hotel, he had to
hire workers and contract heavy equipment, and since there wasn't
(16:17):
yet a hotel for them to stay in, he needed
someplace to store the heavy equipment and to house his
construction workers. He happened to be building the hotel right
next door to where Nevill's house was, So the neighbors
were like, hey, why don't you use Nevill's house he's
not there, we'll just take the boards down. So that's
what they did. I don't know if money was exchanged,
but that's what they did. The neighbor lent them the key.
(16:38):
The construction workers moved into Nevill's home while that hotel
was built. That's always fun. Strangers staying in your home
while you're away. Do you have absolutely no idea that
it's happening? Would that freak you out?
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I don't like people house sitting for me. I don't
want people up in my hand.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
But you don't even know they're no, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
And then you got like, and the thing is, this
is before I don't have any well, don't tell, don't
tell us, simply safe.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
But I don't have any cameras in my.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Not anymore, not anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Well, and so anyway, I don't I don't. I don't
like that. But a lot of people have them. And
this is pre camera like that right before.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
So it's not like he could even keep an eye
on what's going on in the house.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
And it's not like no one's calling to tell him
that they're doing this.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So yeah, and everyone's just in your stuff, yeah, or
even if you've moved out yet, but.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
It's like, give your furniture and stuff. Maybe they left
some stuff. It's their home. They didn't take everything.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
They don't like that star So as.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
That's sounded cube, Yeah, the hotel's built right next door
to nevill'e hundred and fift year old stone walled home.
Right winter of nineteen ninety two rolls around. The hotel's
not done before the winter passes. In January of nineteen
ninety three, there's this calamity because on the fourteenth of
January there's this tremendous storm that hits the island. Winds
just whip across the island, just a wet ferocity Elizabeth.
(18:00):
In fact, a whole sheet of asbestos blew off of
Neville's house, like his roof, His roof has a sheet
of asbestos bull the houses nineteenth century. They're like, yeah,
well this stuff doesn't even burn. It's amazing. So after
the storm passes, the contractor and his workers attempt to
fix the damage. They're like, hey, we can do this.
You guys are in luck. So, you know, because if
(18:20):
anyone could, it's them. They got the equipment, you know,
it's everything right. So they pull out the heavy in
construction equipment, they hoist and balanced the new asbestos sheet
that they borrowed from the neighbors. They're like, oh, I
got an asbestos she I don't know how this works,
but like, I got an asbestos sheet.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
You know that it's a staple of their diet.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Is So they threw up the replacement sheet, except for
as they're lifting it apparently to position at atop the house,
it slipped and it broke. So now there's two broken
asbestos sheets. Now there's no roof.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Right, Maybe that's the good lord saying don't use asbestos.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Yeah, or don't use this poor man's home.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Because this is like ninety two.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
We knew this is what we were pulling it out,
so everywhere.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Else in the world they're pulling in, they're putting it in.
They're just getting the scribb.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
If you're not using that, we'll take it, send it
over to Tory Island care of Patrick Duhan. So this home
but no working roof. Now the construction workers are like,
I end a store totally, Like I can't stay here.
So they go and they check into the local hostele.
Apparently there's a hostel just this is the new hotel.
There's a hostile. So the half built hotel, right, isn't
(19:24):
an option, so they're staying in the hostel. It's either
that or tense. Right. So meantime, the contractor removes the
fuses from Nevill's house. I don't know why he did this.
I guess they're like, yeah, we're checking out, so they
took the fuses for it totally. But when you know it, Elizabeth,
that same day there was a fire in Neville's unoccupied home.
The fire burned and burned and destroyed much of the house.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
That doesn't feel like a coincidence, right, I.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Just thought that was interesting, like, oh, we check out
and then suddenly there's a fire. So if you were
wondering like I was wondering, mister Patrick Duhan was not
on the island. He just happened to get lucky that
this place burned down next to his hotel and nothing
happened to his hotel, So just got lucky. The next day,
the contractor for his hotel, John McGuinty, phones the Guardy
the Irish police and reports the fire. He does his
(20:07):
due diligence. He tells the cops that his heavy equipment,
some of it was burned a bunch of the crew's
fuel was involved in the fire.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
So like the fire department wasn't called. They just let
it burn through and the like we should tell someone.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
We'll call the cops and tell them, like they should
come out.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
And yes, last night big fire.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Like yeah, all of our fuel got burned.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
As wild it was nutsky.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And also this one hundred and fifty year old stone
walled home, it also burnshouse.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It is don't worry about that part.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Just after a storm. But you know what, no roof.
But somehow anyway, the local authorities they come out to
see this wrecked home and they determined that the fire
was an accident, not malicious, and then they contacted Neville
to let him know. So April twenty ninth, they took
their time. Nineteen ninety four, Neville receives not a phone call,
a letter in New Zealand. It's from the Donegal County Council.
(20:53):
The letter informs him, and I quote theater mister Preshow,
it has been brought to our attention that a building
owned by you Ontre Island isn't dan condition. There is
a new hotel being built adjacent to this building and
the owners are concerned that said building would be a
danger to the public as well as being unsightly see
attached photograph. Under the Derelic Sites Act of nineteen ninety,
Donegal County Council are required to take whatever action is
necessary to render this building safe. Storm damage has also
(21:16):
taken its toll with this building, and considerable damage has
been caused. I would be grateful if you could let
us know what intentions are regarding this property before we
proceed to enter the same on the Register of derelic Sites.
Your sincerely, four County Secretary.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
That's how you find that.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
That's how he finds out. Nobody calls him. He just
gets this. Your house is up site. It's an eye
sores you could get rid of. Like, what do you
do you want us to clear? Will clear it?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
You have four days?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah, So imagine just receiving that letter, Like you're you're
halfway around the world. It's nineteen nineties, so you have
to like now fly and jump. You can't just like
get on the internet and go to show me the house.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Right, So no phone calls. I said, storm ravaged the locals.
They're like, oh, yeah, we're trying to clear this before
someone gets sick, it's a health hazard or whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
They all got me sothelioma now exactly.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
And also he's got to be wondering if all this
stuff is strewn about like he's got there in the house.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, where's Yeah, And they don't mention a fire. No,
they're just like the kind of messed up totally.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
And then also there's the tone, like the fact that
you know your home is now littering our islands. To
deal with us. So July fifth, nineteen ninety four, Neville
returns home to Ireland to see what's left of his house.
But before he came home, he did the responsible thing.
He wrote a letter back to the Donegal County Council
telling them that he'd make arrangements to come back and
see what's what. And when he did make the trip,
(22:34):
he didn't go alone. Neville and his wife both flew
back and they took the faerry to Tory and they
were together when the fairy pulled into the Middletown Harbor.
But rather than tell you about it, Elizabeth, yeah, I'd
like you to close your eyes. Isaac would like you
to picture it, Elizabeth, Zah, do you feel that the
sea spray wetting your cheeks as cool salty water miss
(22:56):
against your face. So at the moment you are on
the ferry from dare Headed Totori Island. You stand beside
your husband, the documentary filmmaker, and the whole preshow. The
two of you have taken the ultra long trek from
New Zealand Ireland. It's been a tangle of missed connections
at airport, things you care to forget, and then of
course island hopping from your UK to Ireland. And now
(23:17):
finally you're almost at your house. You're on the ferry,
just minutes from home. You can see the cliffs of
the island. As the ferry draws closer, you approach the
harbor mouth, you can see Middletown. The fairy blows its
foghorn to let the dock workers know it's close. Your
husband gives your arm a squeeze. It's been such long trip.
You both cannot wait to be home. Your eyes search
(23:40):
the cliff. You keep looking, you scan the distance. You
should see it by now, it should be there, but
it is. You check the harbor mouth, you get your bearings.
You know well the side of your house as it
sits there serenely on the cliff, gazing out at the sea.
The stone walled home, with its meter thick walls, is
one of the oldest homes on the island. It's to
kind of a hundred and fifty year old home that
(24:01):
people say has personality. As you search the heights of
the island for sight of your home, a flood of
memories rushed through your mind. You recall the stormy seas
as you spied them from the homes lead glass windows.
You recall the sight of the fishing fleets putting out
to sea. You can practically hear the sound of the old,
creaky wood floors of the home under your feet. You
(24:23):
can imagine the smell of the spring on the breeze
as it blows lightly and sweetly in through an open window.
It's your beloved home and it's not there. How could
that be? You hear yourself say out loud to your husband, Neville.
He doesn't answer, because he's also trying to make sense
of the fact your home is gone. The fairy pulls
(24:43):
ever closer to the island, the one that's no longer home,
to your house. The foghorn blows low and slow again.
Elizabeth instead of their one hundred and fifty year old home.
What did they see? They saw the new hotel. Yeah,
that's what was there, hotel.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
And it's got to be disorienting because they're not used
to seeing that as part of the word.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
No, they don't even know it. So it's our house
bigger right. When they arrived on the island, the couple
had planned to stay in their own home. That's not
an option now obviously, so they thought they still had
a home to stay in because of the pictures of
the Donegal County Council sent them. They're like, oh, there's
some fire damage, right, but you know whatever, we can
get in there. But now there's just Patrick Duhan's new hotel.
(25:26):
There's nothing. Well, technically there is something because their home
is now the septic tank for the hotel. What Patrick
Duhan dug a big hole and put a septic tank.
So there's that, and then there's some pipes sticking out
of the ground where the house used to be. And
then there's a tub flipped over sitting right there.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
No.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, so well this is how he described it. Neville's
memory of this moment, he told the BBC quote, all
I saw was six inches of plastic piping sticking out
of the ground, which would have been my water supply.
There were large boulders surrounding my sit about eight feet
by two feet in size. Around the perimeter. My bath
was lying on the beach upside down. So that's what
he sees right now. Neville and his wife, they stay
(26:05):
with the neighbor who you know, was supposed to be
in charge of their house. Let's talk to this, and
they tried to make sense of what happened. They're like, hey,
what happened to the house? Right? So the neighbor's like, oh,
I'm tired, I'll tell you about it tomorrow. Dodge the
question so that on his own, Neville goes over to
the hotel, the new hotel. He stands around the front porch,
and while he's standing there, staring out from the hotels,
(26:26):
looking at where his home should be, all he sees
is the sea and he's like, huh. He pulls out
a camera snaps a photo from the front porch. Right
then he has that photo developed. Afterwards, he added a
silhouette over the picture of where his house would have been,
and he immediately saw the problem. His house blocked the
hotel's view of the ocean. So Neville went and confronted
(26:50):
the hotel's owner, the richest and most powerful man on
the island, Patrick Duhan, And Nevill asked him, what happened
to my home? Man? And did the storm it blew
off the roof? Yes? Right? But how did the start? Right?
And Patrick Duhan, he's like the villain from this western right.
So whind confronted, he's cock sure he knew he wasn't
on the island at the time. He can't be tied
to the crime if it was a crime. He also
(27:11):
knew he had the town wrapped around his finger. So
Douhan tells Neville, why don't you ask around and see
if you can find out who started the fire? All right?
Just a challenge like, see if anyone will tell you,
maybe they will know. Right. So Nevill does exactly that.
He went around Middletown, asked the locals what they knew
about his missing home. Anyone seen my house?
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Did they know how the fire started? Or did they
know who started the fire?
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Right?
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Neville quickly finds out that Tory Island is a lot
like the state of New Jersey. Nobody saw nothing.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Wait, and so hold on a second. The whole island
was like one hundred. It's like one hundred and seventy
people people, and there are four towns.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Yeah, so it's like, you know, forty in this town.
We're talking, Okay, So strangely nobody remembered the fire.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Yeah, in an island where not much happens, big storm
fire burns down a house right next to the new hotel.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
And is this one of the larger homes in town.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Yes, it's a six bits. Yes, it's a stately home.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
And so nobody remembered how it started and didn't remember
anything about it, right, and.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
They don't want their houses to burn down.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
But if they did say anything, it would be like
his neighbor who he was staying.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
With, look at the window, what happens?
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Yeah, exactly, It's like you must have seen it, right.
So this one, this neighbor, they originally sold them the home, right, like,
this used to be their house. So the same neighbor
who was supposed to take care of the bordered up home,
keep it safe, the same neighbor had lent the key
to the construction workers and said, oh, well, while you
were gone, I didn't see who started the fire either,
so they say. She says that she didn't, right, but
(28:41):
it's better than Elizabeth because the same neighbor did tell
Neville what she did see, or what she recalls. She said, Oh,
your house was sucked up in a whirlwind.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Oh yeah, those big stone homes.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
A whirlwind took your house like the Wizard of Oz
came to Ireland and just whooped up the big stone house.
Thick wall. So island, one hundred and forty one.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
People, no train in questions, nothing to do.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
No one saw nothing, of course not so yeah. But
then one of the locals did tell Neville it'd be
better for him if he didn't ask who started the fire.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Oh, man, don't ask questions.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Yet now he's catching stray threats. So Nevill's mind is
reeling from the sudden, shocking disappearance of his home. He's
despairing about what to do, and no one seems willing
to help him. His former neighbors. Finally, out of sheer
desperation in September of that same year, Neville contacts the police,
and they'd already investigated the fire because they determined it
wasn't arson. They said it was not malicious.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Remember, okay, so it was that did they figure out.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Back when the contractor, John McGinty called, Remember the day
after the fire, when the guard a came out, So
they've already investigated this fire. Yeah, so they were like, oh, yeah, no,
we've checked it. You know.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So what did they say at the time? It was
They just said it.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Was an accident. Remember it said it wasn't malice.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
It was just classified as oops.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yeah, I know that was their term. It wasn't malice,
It wasn't malicious, It wasn't intentional, said they weren't. He
didn't say. So. Neville keeps asking around, investigating on his own.
Eventually speaks with McGuinty, the contractor, the guy who's building
the twelve room hotel for Patrick Duhan, big man on
the island right, and he tells Nevill that Douhan offered
him a thousand pounds to demolish the house. This was
(30:18):
before the fire, before the storm, This was early, This
was early in construction. McGuinty the contractor, was like, well,
I can do that, but I can't just knock down
a house because you don't like it. I need to
find out who owns it. So he didn't try very
hard to do that, apparently, because then the fire happened
and then boom problem solved. What a stroke of irish look.
So after the fire, Dowhann paid the contractor to clear
(30:39):
the debris and rubble, and the county signed off on
it because it's you know, and I saw I remember
the letter they said to Neville. So Dowhann is building's
twelve room hotel on the island. And then there's Neville,
the documentary filmmaker who's not there. He's overseas god knows where.
You can kind of hear how the locals will be like, oh,
we got to look out for the twelve room hotel,
guy richest man on the island instead of some guy
who's making films in New Zealand, right, some guy.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Who buys a very large home. And then just like
kicks off. So they're thinking like, oh, look at you
fancy lad, which you can do. Plus with the county
interceding like they're not on the island, they're on the mainland.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
They're responsible. Yeah, they have to send people, have to
send people out to gate.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
But so in their mind I can only imagine they're
thinking like, oh my god, it's another thing.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Out of the Yeah, we don't like that. Do you
want to go take the boat out. I'm not taking
the boat out this time Yetah. So no. Also, forget
that it's one hundred and fifty year old home. It
was also his life saving so he's a documentary filmmaker.
He didn't know a lot of money. He put all
his money to buy this home. Right, it's is all.
It's a profit from his life's work and now it's
all gone, right And essentially, no, it's not all gone now.
It's a car park because that's what Douhand is using
(31:44):
the lot for, is just parking excess cars because he guys,
remember he mentioned the giant stones. There's these giant white
stones that are put at the end of the by
the cliffs so the tourist won't drive off the edge,
all right, So that's what there is. There's a septic tank,
there's a couple of boulders. He's got a car park.
That's where home. Yeah. So Neville's sensitive artist type and
being such, this is a shock to his system. It's
(32:06):
too much for his constitution to bear. As he would
later say, it was like a switch had flicked in
my mind. So he fills this constant ache inside of him.
He has this twisting knot in his gut. He decides
to take matters into his own hands. He travels over
to Dublin. He and his wife. They go to the
office of the land Registry. They want to get the
records on their home and they found that the folio
for their home was missing. What yeah, that was sketch
(32:28):
in Dublin. So Neville's like, okay, now I need to
get a lawyer. So he goes and gets a lawyer.
He calls a solicitor he knew a man who'd been
his lawyer before, a man he'd known for at least
a decade. He felt like, this guy will help him.
He contacts his lawyer friend and the guy said, no,
I can't help you. He refuses to take the case.
Something is now definitely going on, and that's when he
turned to the bottle. His wife didn't know what to
(32:51):
do to pull him around. Eventually she leaves. Neville's now
alone in Ireland, with no home, no one to help him,
and then he has a real breakdown. In the middle
of that freak, he sends a letter to the police,
because when you're having a breakdown, it's definitely important to
contact the police. That always, that's a great.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Idea here in America.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
They'll come out and shoot you for free.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
They'll take care of it.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yeah, yeah, totally. I doubt the guarde are so quick
to shoot people in Ireland, but you know, I bet
it's still not a good idea to contact the police
when you're having a breakdown. Anyway, it turns out I'm right,
because they send this cop, a sergeant freel he's like
out there, he's dealing with Neville, and he remembers this
letter that Nevill sent and in the letter, Neville said
he wanted the investigation closed. He chosen to forgive whoever
(33:31):
burned the house. Right, So the same sergeant he writes
up a report about Neville's request, and in his report,
the sergeant notes that I had a very peculiar conversation
with Neville, right, So he's basically saying about how Nevill's
you know, Neville mentioned he had a premonition that the
roof was going to blow off his house, and they're like, oh, okay, whatever,
So when it happened, he wasn't terribly surprised. In fact,
he called it an act of God to the cops
(33:53):
to the guarde. They were like, okay, whatever, mate, it's
your home. H Art was be on your way then, okay,
so there you go. Let's take a little break ye
with Yeah, when we get back, I will let the
house reappear somewhat what we're back, Elizabeth, Hey, I promise
(34:29):
that my man Neville would get some justice. He'd get
his house back right now. Remember I said he felt
like his roof blowing off was an act of God,
and that's what he felt that started this whole grizzly affair.
And you know how God can be, you know, like
before any earthly justice happens, my man Neville has his
breakdown to get through, as I told you, And so
in September of nineteen ninety four, he goes to get help.
(34:50):
He goes to a general practitioner, you know like a GP,
and who then refers him to a psychiatrist. And then
he meets up with a psychiatrist. This cat diagnoses Neville
bipolar and that's why he's having his breakdown. So then
the psychiatrist that has a Neville admitted to a psychiatric
hospital prescribes him heavy medication and basically locks him up
and throws away the key. So now at this point
(35:12):
Neville has lost his home, his family, his sanity, and
now his freedom. Yeah yeah, all because he bought a house. Yeah,
he's rather afraid he won't ever be let out of
this psychiatric hospital. Sure right, So in because some hotel
owner on a tiny robot island wanted a better.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
View, make a car toon.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
He just wanted a better view.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Developer villain, huh exactly.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
So the next year his wife goes down, she gets ill. Now,
since Neville's still in the psychiatric hospital, when his wife
takes seriously ill, the young kids have no one to
take care of them. They go into state care.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Well in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Yeah, so you know, and now he's at rock bottom.
Neville he had to look up to see rock bottom.
That's how far Neville has fallen. He's done nothing wrong,
so he would later tell a judge that he wanted
to end it all, but I just didn't have the
courage to do it. So this is a man who,
by the way, an award winning, internationally acclaimed documentarian. That's
his life. And now he's just fully broken and he's
(36:06):
not even sure what has happened or why or like
is it personal or like what is going on? He
knows he's lost damn near everything in his life and
he doesn't know why.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
He's like an.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Irish country song. So this this is a bit of
a bummer, right, But when I say it may sound funny.
I don't know. He sounds funny to me, but don't laugh.
Five years later, Neville's still in the psychiatric hospital and
they're giving him electroshock therapy and he's wondering where it
all went wrong. Oh my god, with the electrodes attached
to his head and whatnot. Lying they're about to get
another ridiculous jolt of electricity to carom. He's betting, am
(36:38):
I God? So a curse?
Speaker 4 (36:40):
Like?
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Am I just the Irish job? What is going on?
What is happening? So Nevill finally pulls himself together enough
to get out of the psychiatric care. Now he's back
out in the world. He goes right back to trying
to find out what happened to his house. I mean
like right back. Yeah. If he's gonna lose everything, he
wants to know why. He deserves to know why and
who did this.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
To I think another option would be to go to
New Zealand and go take care of your kids and
just leave them.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Reasonable, Elizabeth, Yes, this is a man who's now been
he's been made to focus because everything's been taken, and
he wants to know why everything because everything's been you know,
his kids have already been harmed. You know, yes he
can go and help them, but first he's like, I
need to know why my kids were harmed, so I
can at least. I guess that's his thing. I don't know.
So now the question is was it really the obvious
(37:27):
villain Douhand the hotel hea or did someone else on
the island secretly hate him and he had the time
to get justice because at this point, as I remember,
he's pretty much unemployable. He's in his forties, he's got
nothing else to do, so he goes right back to
the island. He's basically, you know, as I said, been
broken by his dream of owning a home in Ireland.
And so now he's like, at least I'm getting justice,
(37:49):
but I'll have you know, worry not, Elizabeth. He does
get justice. In two thousand. He returns to Tory, and
even though he'd been told to let it go, he
starts asking around again people are like, are you still
on nuts? So there, you know, he's asking him, like
what happened that faithful night? And then nobody once again
nobody saw nothing. Still nobody saw nobody will help them. Yeah,
So a year later he tries a different approach. He
(38:10):
goes right to Patrick Douhan himself and he tries to
strike a deal. So in August of twenty and one,
he writes a letter to Douhan asking him to remove
two of the large white stones that are still on
his property.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, he owns that land, owns the lot right, and.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
There may be nothing there, but he owns the lands.
He's like, get them off. They're on my land without
my permission. So then Dowhan's like, you know, he had
them for his car park. So the next day Douhan
writes a back of letter dar Neville further to our
conversation in the clubhouse last night, I everget that I
didn't come across the copyfacts from Donegall County Council, but
I can confirm that I cleared the road from rock
and stones and debris to make the road passable as
(38:44):
instructed by Donegal County Council. You are sincerely Pat Douhan.
So they're trying to be all businesslike, right, which is
like this is not quite right, okay, like letters back
and forth if they love letters. So apparently these two
men then had a chat about their adjoining properties, because
I remember they're right next to each other. They're hanging
out in the clubhouse at night, and they must have been,
you know, kept talking because we know in September this
(39:07):
that previously was in August. Now in September, Neville publishes
in the Dairy People section of the Donegal News his
public notice of an application to the Planning Authority, and
in its states, I never Press show am applying for
a planning permission for the erection of a two story
replacement dwelling at Middletown, Torrey Island. Blah blah blah. Yeah,
and then he's like me, the undersigned Neville and Pe
(39:28):
Douhan do here by this day two thousand and one
enter into a binding agreement why Pe dohand will secure
the land rights to the area shown shaded for Nevill
Press Show, and will assign to him the land rights
and ownership of that area. In pursuance I Nevill Press
Show will simultaneously assign the land rights and ownership of
the land known as blah blahah. So they're gonna do
a land swap. He's gonna buy a new lot. And
then he's like, i'll give you my lot if you
(39:49):
go buy me a lot. Interesting, right, So it's just
a straight swap transaction. Yeah, now signed witness, they put
they put it in the paper, so now everybody knows.
It's like, okay, we'll do hand's doing right by him, right, Yeah,
So Elizabeth, it's not quite justice though, right, you know,
justice is what's called for. So cut to two years later,
the land swap deal did not work out. No new
(40:10):
home was constructed for Neville. In fact, things actually had
turned icy and cold, because in June of two thousand
and three, Nevill writes yet another letter, this time sent
by registered mail because it's like a legal letter. So
it's like I want to know that you received it.
And this letter once again, these letter right in irishmen.
It goes, dear Patrick. When I met you on Torre
(40:31):
Island December of two thousand and one, we both signed
a legally binding document in which you were to acquire
a site marked on the island exchange for you acquiring
my house site. As I've not heard from you since
we signed that document. Then I wrote to you and
again received no response. You are hereby advised to expedite
this matter within the next twenty one days. Failure to
do so will result in this issue being taken out
of my hands. So now we're going to court. Yeah, so, Elizabeth,
(40:53):
what do you think happened next? Do you think? Stop
trying to think? I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Okay, you don't have to tell me to stop trying.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
To think, wrote another letter, even though he received no
response to the previous letter. His final letter, dated August
sports two thousand and three, included a one hundred euros
that he sent back because apparently he borrowed the money
from Douhan and he wanted he gets straight before he
took him to court.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Even years later, exactly after.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
The Neville hires a new lawyer, he takes the matter
back to the Guarde and then that same month, August
of two thousand and three, Neville contacts the police. He
complains that he's having all sorts of trouble with his neighbor,
the owner of the hotel, one Patrick Duhan. So the
detective it gets sent out from the mainland. This detective.
He meets with Neville, He's like, tell me the story.
A complaint gets recorded. The detective starts an investigation. He
(41:41):
goes around investigating. He's scouring the island for information. He's
like talking to everybody. He interviews countless locals just to
see what they know about the case. If they remember
the fire, they remember the storm, and do you remember
how the house disappeared?
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah? Remember that.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Yeah. Detective found that no one would speak to the police,
not a single person in this place. The detective then
spoke with the contractor, John McGuinty, who is legally tied
to this. He refuses to comment. He's like, I'm not
talking to the police, so that's a bit suss and
but he did confirm his prior testimony. He's like, remember
when I said years back, whatever I said, that's it.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Yeah, So they're like, okay now. Patrick Duhan, the hotel owner,
he also refuses to cooperate with this investigation, but he
provided a memo of his understanding of what occurred. He's like,
this is what I remember. Here we go, it's all
on paper. The detective reads the memo and goes, well,
I guess there's no case. No charges are filed. Four
years later.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
It fift.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
In two thousand and seven, Neville came back to the
guard A one more time. He refined his official complaint,
this time about the lack of justice he received. He's
just complaining about the cops. Now, you guys blew it. Yeah,
the guard as said, up, sorry, too much time has passed.
Where they go, how about this, We'll split the difference.
We'll do a fresh new investigation. So they send out
(42:57):
another cop. But there's now two sets crimes because there
was the fire, was or was it not? Ourson? And
then there was the home disappearing, which is a second crime.
Is that theft? Is that fraud? Is it illegal dumping?
What is that?
Speaker 4 (43:09):
Right?
Speaker 3 (43:09):
So two thousand and seven the guard a attempt to
reinvestigate the fire and the home theft back in nineteen
ninety three, the subsequent disappearance of the home and no
one on the tiny island. Remembering, there was one big
problem with all of this. All of the original officers
had retired. By now none of the original records are
available for the case. There isn't any record that the
(43:29):
GUARDE had ever even visited the crime scene back in
ninety three or ninety four, No photographs, nothing, only what
the county those photographs they sent to Neville. That's it.
Luckily Neville still had those photos, so he gave them
to the police and he said, here's your evidence. They're like, oh, okay, thanks.
So the police they see these piles of broken, burnt
building material, the debris, the trash.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
They're like, okay.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
So back in nineteen ninety four when remember Sergeant Friel
was handling the case and Neville told him to drop
the charges. Yeah, and there'd been no conclusive evidence that
the richest man on the island had done anything. However,
there was evidence that he had paid Donegal City Council
to clear the debris. So there's this paper trail. The
cops they start putting it together. They're like, well, what's this.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Yeah for it exactly.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Lacking any forensic evidence, the Guarda decide once again not
to pursue charges. Yeah, and then Neville asked them also
not to do that. So now a decade later he
changes his mind. They're like, that's kind of weird, but
he's like, well, I didn't want to charge anyone. And
now here comes Neville again. The guardia like, so, what's
the deal, who did it? Why are you so mad?
So they basically start questioning him. So he's like, I'm
not getting justice this way. So what does he do?
(44:32):
He gets himself a lawyer who's not a friend. He
files a civil lawsuit. He's gonna take it to the court.
If nobody will get him justice, maybe a judge will
do it. Yeah, Finally he finds someone who'll take his
story of his missing home seriously. Most of the people
act like it's a joke, like, oh, tell me about
your home, right he did it up and walk away? Right,
So this cop sees it as a crime, not a
(44:54):
big cosmic joke, right. Yea. The High Court Justice Roderick
Murphy here's his case, listens two months of testimony, gathers evidence.
The judge eventually rules. Now, before I tell you the ruling,
I want to read the judge's own words from the
court documents, because, and I quote on the evidence before me,
it appears that, by reason of his mental illness, the
(45:14):
plaintiff was incapable from the date of a cruel of
the cause of action, at least to the date of
his instructions of his solicitor which resulted in the letter
of twenty third December two thousand and three of functioning
to a degree that would enable him to protect his
legal rights in relation to his property as a reasonable
man would do so. Basically, the judge is like, he
was out of his gazebo. He couldn't protect his house. Yeah,
which is great that somebody finally sees sastic. Then the
(45:36):
judge offers up his ruling, having heard the evidence and
considered the submissions on the merits of the case. The
court is satisfied that the second name defendant hasn't continues
to trespass on the plaintiff's property. Well, yeah, so the
judge orders Patrick Deuhan to either buy Neville a suitable
and comparable home on the island Whoa, or to pay
him sixty nine thousand dollars as restitution and damages for
(45:58):
disappearing Nevill's home. Finally Neville gets justice, but he'd still
lost so much.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
This isn't really justice.
Speaker 3 (46:05):
I mean, but he gets his wife and his family back,
he gets his sanity backs, he gets his freedom back.
It's like playing a country song and reverse. Now, now
he did lose his spot in the world, where he
gets on his front porch and watch the fishermen go
out into the sea or tack back into the harbor.
You know, he didn't get to have that. So with
the remuneration, he couldn't afford to buy a home on
Tory Island because now it become too valuable. Right, So
(46:27):
you know, he'd lost his one hundred and fifty year
old home and he doesn't have the sixty nine thousand
won't buy him a house. Or as he put it
in I quote, you could buy a really nice chicken
coop without sort of money, but you'd have no money
left over to buy the chickens. So, being the rich
jerk that he is, of course, Patrick Duhand appeals the ruling.
Of course, Now do you think he claws back the justice.
(46:48):
Probably he tries to get out of paying. He's like, no,
it's only worth like ten or twelve thousand dollars, that's
his counterclaim. It goes all the way to the Irish
Supreme Court. Really, yes, the court rules in Neville's face.
Dewhan didn't even have the stones turn up in court.
His appeal was tossed and Neville got to keep his.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
Modicum of justice, thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
So Elizabeth. What's a ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Don't leave your home in the care of another. That's
my takeaway. What about you?
Speaker 3 (47:17):
Oh man, it's just that, Like as I said, I
kept saying, it's like running me of a Western Yeah.
So my whole point of this is basically, people are
people everywhere. They always do the thing, but you're gonna
sight with the rich person because it's in their best
interests because he's gonna bring more to the island. And
then this documentary filmmaker who's like doing things or trying
to like document he did a documentary about someone trying
(47:38):
to save Irish culture and they're like, not that bozo, right,
So they're like they're not gonna help them. I'm like,
here's so this guy is telling stories about people trying
to save Irish culture. He doesn't even get to keep
his no, but what do they do. They're like one
guy's like, hey, who wants an Airbnb on on Tory?
Oh there you go. I find that ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
It is ridiculous. Good takeaway.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
He in the mood for a talk back to watch
this all back?
Speaker 1 (48:01):
Oh yes, please, what do you got for us? Oh?
Speaker 3 (48:08):
God? He see that.
Speaker 4 (48:12):
I went, hey, everyone. This is Asher from Southeast Missouri.
In the last episode, the Vegan One, Zarren mentioned that
they basically gone girled themselves. Wanted to tell you a
little thing about the movie Gone Girl and the crimes
that surrounded at least the restaurants that were in the movie.
(48:36):
I thought you would like to know that all of
those restaurants were the actual names of the places here
in town, and they ended up being shut down because
the owner of them was one of the local surgeons
and was committing fraud by requiring all of his surgeries
to use equipment exclusively sold by his wife. So sadly
(48:59):
none of them existed. The bar still has to sign up.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
Though, incredible Gone eats exactly.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
Thank you for that one.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
As always, you can go on to the iHeart app
downloaded record a talkback just like that. Maybe we'll hear
your voice here and also we uh you know, we'd
like to hear from you, so reach out talk to
us on the Ridiculous Crime. The social media is we
are on Instagram and blue Sky. We have a Ridiculous
Crime website ridiculous Crime dot com. Please you can check
that out or Ridiculous Crime at gmail. Dot com send
(49:34):
us an email and if you do, please start it. Hey,
producer d That's all we got for you. Thanks for listening.
We will catch you next. Crime Ridiculous Crime is hosted
by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnette, produce and edited by
the man who co wrote These Irish Eyes are Smiling
(49:55):
Dave Coucy and starring Analys Rucker as Oh Judith. Research
is by Miss House investigators Marissa Brown and Alex French.
Our theme song is by our house band, The Kings
of Torrey, Ireland, Thomas o'lee and Travis o' dutton. The
hosts wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair and
makeup by Sparkleshot and Mister London. Executive producers are Ben
(50:16):
call Me Danny Boy from House of Payne Bolin and
Noel You know They're not from Boston Row we.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Cry say it one more time.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
Crime Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Four more podcasts.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
My Heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Zaron Burnett
Elizabeth Dutton
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