By Colm Wallace

One of the most perplexing and mysterious cases in the history of the Irish State occurred on Christmas Day, 1929, in the village of Stradbally on the coast of Co. Waterford. On that day, Larry Griffin, the local postman, left his home in Kilmacthomas to do his rounds in Stradbally, six miles away. At this point in time postmen like Griffin, astride their bicycles, delivered the post on Christmas Day. Griffin, aged 48, had been the postman in the locality for a decade and was well liked and trusted by the locals. He had previously been a British soldier, seeing action in World War I, but by 1929 was a married man with three children back home in Waterford.

Griffin made his Christmas rounds of the village and its surrounds throughout the day as normal. One key difference from other days in the year was that many of the householders he had helped over the previous twelve months invited him in for a Christmas drink, an offer he accepted in several cases. By the time his rounds were done at around 6pm, it appears that Griffin made his way to a public house in the village. All pubs were to remain closed on Christmas Day but this was a law often flouted and sources later stated that there were a good crowd of people celebrating the festive season, including, it appears, the local school principal and two local gardaí.

By 10pm, Larry’s wife was growing worried that her husband had not returned home but consoled herself with the thought that he may have stayed in Stradbally, not fancying the forty-minute cycle on the cold and wet night. Just after 7am the following morning, however, Griffin’s bicycle was discovered in the middle of a quiet country road at Power’s Cottage, two miles from Stradbally, looking suspiciously as if it had been carefully placed there. It was also dry, despite heavy rain the previous night. The alarm was quickly raised and searches of local bogs and fields were quickly inaugurated but proved unsuccessful.
Gardaí began questioning the inhabitants of Stradbally within hours. Several of them mentioned seeing Griffin in the company of Garda Ned Dullea outside Whelan’s Pub on the evening of Christmas Day.

The garda was confronted with the evidence but denied that he had gone into the pub with Larry, claiming that the last time he had seen the postman, he was cycling off in the direction of his home in Kilmacthomas.
Believing that local officers might be compromised, gardaí in Waterford City quickly took charge of the case.

Continue reading in this year’s Christmas Annual