Murdair Mhám Trasna is a new docu-drama that airs next week Wednesday night, 4 April. It details the gross miscarriage of justice that happened after the brutal slaying in 1882 of a family of five in the remote village of Mám Trasna in the west of Ireland.
In Murdair Mhám Trasna (The Mám Trasna Murders), President Michael D. Higgins reveals that the Government has appointed an expert to examine the case for granting posthumous pardons to Maolra Seoighe and the innocent men convicted of the historic murders.

President Higgins says he is looking forward to hearing that expert’s opinion and the Government’s advice on one of the most famous miscarriages of justice in British and Irish legal history.

“At that stage, I will be returning to this issue to see what I can do. If it were up to me, the formalities aside, I would be happy to accept that the injustice which occurred should be recognized. My view is that the moral issue is clear,” the President says.

“Everything that happened at the level of the State was horrendous. There was bribery involved. The accused didn’t get a proper chance to defend themselves.

"There wasn’t an atmosphere of equality and there was no equality as regards legal processes at that time.”

Murdair Mhám Trasna, centres on an infamous event in Irish history, the brutal slaying in 1882 of a family of five in the remote village of Mám Trasna in the west of Ireland.

A swift and severe response from the British authorities led to the conviction of innocent people, the hanging of some and the imprisonment of others as a result of perjured evidence and bribery.

The events were described by the prominent British historian Robert Kee as “one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice in British legal history”.

As the miscarriage of justice began to unfold and the perjury was admitted in the press, both nationally and internationally at the time, a refusal by Gladstone’s government to allow a public inquiry contributed to the fall of that government in Westminster in 1885.

The innocent victims have never been pardoned by the authorities but this feature length production moves that prospect significantly closer.

Murdair Mhám Trasna, which has recently been selected to represent Ireland in the history category at the Celtic Media Festival, is produced by Galway based production company ROSG for TG4, with support from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

Murdair Mhám Trasna is based on the book ‘Éagóir’, written by former Language Commissioner, Seán Ó Cuirreáin and includes contributions from Senior Counsel Luan Ó Braonáin, Professor Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, relatives of the deceased and many more.

You can see the full account of the events that unfolded, when Murdair Mhám Trasna is broadcast, on April 4th, at 9.30pm on TG4.