Tag Archives: Gerard Lovett

February 11th 2026

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Title: Who Killed Honor Bright?
Speaker: Gerry Lovett
Time: @ 7:45 PM
Location: Iona Pastoral Centre

Gerry Lovett
Gerry Lovett

Gerard Lovett retired in 2004 as a detective inspector of An Garda Síochána Special Branch. Since then, he has been general secretary of An Garda Síochána Retired Members’ Association for seven years, and was editor of their quarterly magazine Síocháin. He has written numerous articles on police history and has regularly given lectures to historical societies on both Gardá and RIC history, as well as famous historical murder cases. One of those cases is tonight’s talk on the 1925 unsolved murder of Lily O’Neill (Honor Bright).

Gallery: click on images to enlarge

Who was Honor Bright?

  • “Honor Bright” was the nickname of Lizzie (Elizabeth/Lily) O’Neill, a young woman whose body was found near Ticknock, south Dublin, in June 1925, prompting intense press and public interest.​​
  • Contemporary coverage portrayed her as a glamorous but “scandalous” figure, and the case became a touchstone for debates on morality, sexuality, and urban life in the new Free State.​

The book “Who Killed Honor Bright?”

  • The book Who Killed Honor Bright? was written by Patricia Hughes, who identifies herself as the granddaughter of Lily O’Neill/Honor Bright.
  • Hughes advances a controversial thesis that her grandmother was murdered on orders linked to senior Free State figures, and that William Butler Yeats was Honor Bright’s lover and the father of her child.

What remains uncertain

  • Officially, Honor Bright’s killer was never definitively established; Hughes has campaigned for a modern re‑investigation and states that the Garda case remains formally unresolved.​
  • Later historical work (such as Nursing Clio’s article on the case) treats the murder as emblematic of the tensions of 1920s Dublin, but does not endorse Hughes’s claims about Yeats and state‑ordered assassination as established fact.

Sources via perplexity Ai.

“Honor Bright” song written and performed by By Peter Yeates (audio only)

Source: HappyStPats via YouTube
Peter Yeates “Honor Bright” – (AKA) “Honour Bright” from his CD “Back in the Middle” 1996

September 14th 2022

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Title ‘Ireland’s Special Branch’
Speaker: Gerard Lovett
Time: @ 7:45 PM
Location: Iona Pastoral Centre

NOTE FROM AOIFE O’TIERNEY
Gerard Lovett will speak to us about the content of his new book: Ireland’s Special Branch (see details below)

The book will be available to purchase. Helen Dunne of Wordwell, the publishers, will be there with books for sale on the night. The price is €20.00. This book took long years of research so congratulations are due to Gerard on his achievement.

This will be a live talk at the Iona Centre so please make a special effort to attend. The meeting starts at 7.45 p.m. Admission for members is €3 and for visitors €5. A Cupán Tae will follow. The AGM will be in October and is also the time for renewal of subs.

Hoping to see you all,
Aoife

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Ireland’s Special Branch: The inside story of their battle with the IRA and other groups 1922-1947.

Publication date: August 2022
ISBN: 978-1-913934-29-3
Price: €20

“A gang of police thugs.”

“Renegades and perverted types.”

These were just some of the ways in which the men and women of the Garda Special Branch were described by their enemies within the anti-Treaty IRA. What follows in this work is the gripping narrative of the often brutal and violent struggle for supremacy between these two sides.

It explores the foundation and the inner workings of a squad of detectives, initially called the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), based in Oriel House, Dublin, in August 1922 and their transition into what became known as the Special Branch. It further details the history of the turbulent decades which followed, and the regular confrontations with the IRA in which many officers of Ireland would make the ultimate sacrifice. 

About the Author:

Gerard Lovett is a retired member of An Garda Síochána and retired as a detective inspector in the Garda Special Branch in 2004. Since then, he was general secretary of the Garda Síochána Retired Members’ Association for seven years and was editor of their quarterly magazine Síocháin. He has written numerous articles on police history and has regularly given lectures to historical societies on both garda and RIC history, as well as famous historical murder cases.