Mark O'Sullivan: Terror on the Farm
episodePreviously titled “Mark O'Sullivan: Murder on the Farm” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 4, 2026
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What led to the tragic events at Raheen?
It's almost 7am, but still the dark of night here in rural County Cork. Anna Sullivan runs from her home in her dressing gown and shoes. She's trying to get help. She needs to drive away, up the long laneway leading from the farmhouse to the road. But first she has to unlock the large gate in the yard. She reaches the gate. She stops. Her key won't work. There's a new padlock. It wasn't there last night. Anne looks up and sees them then. The two men with guns. One is smashing something on the ground. The other is pacing. She doesn't know if they've seen her. She knows she can't go this way. She doesn't know where to go. She turns and runs back to her home. She runs from the men with guns. She runs from her husband and her youngest son.
The men could kill her, but they don't want to kill her. For Anne, their wife and mother, they've planned a fate far crueler than death. And now they are executing that plan. Anne runs back through her house. She escapes out a side entrance and runs into the fields. She runs along the ditches. She tries to stay out of sight. She runs into cold, damp darkness for almost half an hour before reaching a neighbour's farm. She knocks at the front door and tries to explain what is happening at her home. She says, They done what they did to make me suffer. Moments later, a shot is heard in the distance. When a person is killed in Ireland, the Gardaí turn to the forensic examiners of the Technical Bureau, and for 25 years I was one of them.
I'm John Sweetman. At crime scenes I learned to listen to what the evidence was saying, and what the killer was trying to silence. A smudged print, a misplaced everyday object, the smallest detail that revealed the truth. Now, in this Go Loud original podcast, I return to some of Ireland's most compelling cases. This is Lines of Inquiry, a podcast that follows the evidence and reveals the story behind each case. In this episode, we explore the tragic events at an isolated farmhouse in County Cork, where the breakdown of a family led to one of the darkest crimes in recent Irish history. This is Lines of Inquiry. Tragedy at Rahean.
How did Anne O'Sullivan's cancer diagnosis affect her family?
Anne O'Sullivan was born in 1959. She was the only child of Timothy and Mary Cronin, and she grew up on Raheen, a farm in the townland of O'Sullis, close to the town of Castle Magner in County Cork. It was a large farm, 115 acres, in prime land. That part of Cork is a stretch of fertile land as good as anywhere on the island, with rich, rolling grasslands perfect for dairy farming. It is beautiful land, and it is valuable land. A farm of 115 acres could today command a price of several million euro. It was a scenic, gentle place to grow up, and Anne's home was a happy one. Despite being an only child, the nearby area was dotted with their wider family, including the Sherlocks, with their seven girls, who would call Anne the eighth sister.
The farming life didn't call to Anne. She studied nursing and went on to work at Mount Alvernia Hospital outside Mallow, where she was highly respected and worked a job she cared for deeply and enjoyed very much. In 1985, her father, Timothy, died suddenly. From then it was just Anne and her mother, Mary, in the house on the sprawling farm. They leased the land to neighbouring farmers, allowing them to use it for a fee. It was six years later, in 1991, when Anne met a mechanic named Tighe O'Sullivan from nearby Cecilstown. He also came from a farming family, but one with a far less impressive plot of land. The O'Sullivan farm was smaller, just 30 acres, and far from the prime rolling hills of Raheen.
It was mostly bogland, not work much. Tighe, like Anne, was not called to the farming life, and he had become a mechanic. Tighe was a twin, but his sister died at a young age, leaving him to grow up as an only child on his family's farm. His parents were said to be fiercely protective of him. He had inherited the 30-acre farm from his parents by the time he and Anne had married in 1993, two years after they met. They married in a ceremony in Rome and they honeymooned there too.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What led to the tragic events at Raheen?
0:06–3:17
2
How did Anne O'Sullivan's cancer diagnosis affect her family?
3:17–7:37
3
What tensions arose regarding Anne's inheritance?
7:37–10:59
4
How did Dermot's relationship with his mother change over time?
10:59–15:08
5
What threats were made during the family conflict?
15:08–18:23
6
How did Mark O'Sullivan's fears escalate leading up to the tragedy?
18:23–21:35
7
What events unfolded on the day of the shooting?
21:35–24:29
8
What were the aftermath and implications of the O'Sullivan family tragedy?
24:29–51:35