Wild Bridgie

I find the sketch done of my uncle, Hugh O’Callaghan, when he testified at Bridget’s murder trial unintentionally comical. [1] My cousin...

366 days and some 8 hours ago, I heard the most heart-rending sound. My mother, Mary, gave a kind of hiccoughing, half-cry, half-scream....

Like so many Brisbanites, I’ve ridden (or walked) past the site of the old Brisbane morgue. blissfully unaware of its grisly history. ...

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”[2] Simply put, judging the past by modern standards of behaviour is a...

There’s a rumour in my mother’s family that we have a touch of the sight: an ability to communicate with spirits and predict the future....

For someone who has such an expressive face, Mary, my mother and Bridget’s grandniece, doesn’t smile a lot. Mary’s a cheerful soul with...

Of all the dead rellies I’ve been writing about as I research Bridget’s murder; I’m fondest of Bridget’s mum, Hanorah Talty O’Callaghan....

I have a friend, a confirmed and enthusiastic atheist, who rates the intensity of Catholic churches by the number of crucifixes she...

Do you have any ride-or-die friends? Ride-or-dies are a rare breed of mate.  They’ll stand between you and any threat. They’re also...

You might think 13 is an unlucky number but it turns out in countries like Italy and Greece, it’s 17 that’s considered the ill-luck...

Now here’s an imperious minx – peacocking for the camera in her finery. She’s looking damn good in her Sunday finest and she knows it. 

Have you ever taken a series of facts and jumped to the absolutely incorrect assumption? Here are the facts I know about Patrick...

Slainte, Auntie Bridget. Many happy returns on this your hundredth and thirty-first birthday. And Happy St Patrick's Day. It’s a mite...

I keep thinking how disgustingly hot it must have been for Hugh waiting for her at Roma Street Station on that Sunday morning.

This is me with my maternal grandmother, Cecilia. For me, Bridget’s story starts when Cecilia was dying in 2002. We were going through...