Just eighty years ago a young man, who had been reared in Blackrock, came to work at Bridge-a-Crin. He was employed as a servant by the then parish priest Fr. James McKeown. He was intelligent, but his earlier activities had earned him a stay in Artane Industrial School, and his prospects were therefore limited.

Local people speak of his fondness for playing tricks. He would climb the trees opposite the parochial house to change the fledglings of the crows from one nest to another to confuse the birds. He would accompany the parish priest to the railway station and drive home in the car wearing a clerical collar and hat, to confuse the parishioners.

But when the parish priest returned from a day trip to Dublin on 16 May 1927 the housekeeper had disappeared without explanation and, although the local Garda had been informed, a number of months passed before any real progress was made in the investigations.

The housekeeper’s bicycle was missing. Parts of a bicycle and some of her possessions were discovered in the young man’s room and in the garden. Suspicion fell of the servant boy but yet there was no proof that the housekeeper had come to any harm.

The strong suspicions which the Garda Superintendent held prompted him to make a search of the locality. He had Falmore quarry pumped out and, after a few days pumping, he found a sack which contained a body.

The young man was charged and was tried in Dublin in July 1928. He was found guilty. His appeal was rejected and he went to the gallows.

Few can recall those events today. There is no longer a parochial house at Bridge-a-Crin, and the quarry has been altered for other purposes. But of the young man there is a memorial. Gerard Toal made his own inscription on a stone in a wall near the quarry and it remains there today.