Who Stole The Irish Crown Jewels?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jan 14th 2008 at 10:02AM

I love a good mystery, and the story of the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels is definitely an interesting one. Jerome Reilly for the Irish Independent reports that historical researcher Sean J. Murphy is set to publish his findings on the 100-year-old theft. The jewels, which are made of rubies, emeralds and Brazilian diamonds, were the regalia, or insignia, of the Order of St Patrick and were stolen from a safe in Dublin Castle. The jewels, which would be worth around one million euros today, were taken from the safe with a key which suggests it was an inside job. Murphy's report points the finger at Francis Shackleton, the brother of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. Francis had been staying at the house of Arthur Vicars, the Officer of Arms of Dublin Castle, who had stored the jewels in his office. There is another possible suspect, Francis Bennett Goldney, but Shackleton is the likelier candidate both because he was having money problems and because he was later convicted of fraud in 1913. Also, in his will, Vicars named the thief as Francis Shackleton. The jewels have never been found.

Tags: dublin, history, irish crown jewels, IrishCrownJewels, mystery