10 Most Evil People In Irish History

10 Most Evil Irish People Ever

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re examining our picks for the 10 Most Evil Irish People Ever.

For this list, we’ll be looking at the worst Irish criminals in history, including those from the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland before Partition.

Did we miss anyone off the list who’s truly bad? Let us know below.

Robert George Clements

Born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1880, Robert George Clements was a physician who eventually settled in England. However, tragedy dogged his heels - suspiciously so. He married four times, thrice to well-off heiresses, and all of them died. The first apparently died of sleeping sickness, the second and third of endocarditis, and the fourth of leukemia. But there were suspicious circumstances, such as a rushed cremation and botched autopsy. An investigation found that Clements’ fourth wife had died from morphine poisoning. However, when the police went to arrest the real-life version of Bluebeard in 1947, they found he had taken his own life using the same means.

Kieran Patrick Kelly

Nicknamed Nosy Kelly due to his large nose, Kieran Kelly may have killed up to 31 people. He was born in Rathdowney, Ireland, in 1930. At 18, he joined the British army, but went AWOL and was dishonorably discharged. Settling in London, England, he fell on hard times and became homeless. Then, in 1983, Kelly was arrested for theft. However, he murdered his cellmate William Boyd, apparently because he was snoring. During questioning, Kelly confessed to having killed numerous other victims. Due to a lack of evidence, he was only sentenced to life in prison for slaying Boyd and homeless man Hector Fisher in 1975. We’ll likely never know his true victim count, as he passed away in 2001.

John Bodkin Adams

Born in Randalstown, UIster, in 1899, John Bodkin Adams moved to Eastbourne, England, in 1922 to work as a general practitioner. But his patients kept dying. In fact, within one 10 year period, 163 of his patients fell into comas and died. Suspiciously, he’d been mentioned in the wills of 132. The police came calling in 1956, suspecting he was overdosing patients on narcotics. Adams was acquitted of murder however, due to lack of evidence. The judge would later opine that Adams had just been “easing the passing” of the dying. Adams was later found guilty of forging prescriptions and cremation forms. He was struck off as a doctor, but reinstated after just a few years and continued practicing.

Kate Webster

Ever heard of the Richmond Murder? It was notorious in Victoria England, although it’s since been overshadowed by the crimes of Jack the Ripper. Born in the late 1840s in Killanne, Ireland, Kate Webster spent her early life in and out of jail for theft. In 1879, she became the maid of widow Julia Martha Thomas in Richmond, London. After an argument, Webster pushed Thomas down the stairs and choked her to death. She then hid the evidence in a grizzly fashion, discarding the remains around London. For weeks, Webster posed as Thomas, before the neighbors got wise, and she fled to Ireland, where she was arrested. She was hanged in London. Only in 2011 was Thomas’ skull discovered - buried in David Attenborough's garden.

Patrick Holland

This Dublin born career criminal was involved in everything from arms and drug trafficking to armed robbery. In his youth, he joined the US Marine Corps, before returning to Ireland and running various criminal rackets. He did time for robbery, as well as possession of explosives and drugs. But he’s most notorious for his suspected involvement in the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996. Guerin’s coverage had angered drug lords, in particular John Gilligan, whose gang Holland had joined. Holland denied the murder and wasn’t convicted. In 2007, he was arrested for plotting to kidnap a businessman for ransom, and died in prison two years later.

Black Widows of Liverpool

Born in Ireland in 1829 and 1843 respectively, Irish sisters Catherine Flannagan and Margaret Higgins ran a rooming house in Liverpool, England. But then, their tenants started to drop like flies. First, Flannagan’s son suddenly perished in 1880. Then, Higgins’s stepdaughter and another lodger passed away. Eventually, Higgins’s husband, Thomas, also fell ill and died. Each time, the sisters collected their life insurance payouts. Thomas’ death spurred his brother to contact the authorities, and arsenic was discovered in the bodies of all the deceased. After the sisters were arrested, Catherine alleged she was part of a larger conspiracy with other women, who also murdered people to claim their life insurance. The sisters were hanged on the 3rd of March, 1884.

Ivan Payne

Ordained in 1967, Irish Roman Catholic priest Ivan Payne moved from parish to parish, abusing young male victims. He served as chaplain at Dublin’s Our Lady's Children's Hospital in 1968, and was appointed to Cabra parish in 1981. In the 90s, a pattern of abuse came to light. Allegedly, the church provided him with a loan to pay off one victim. But in 1998, he was convicted of 14 charges and sentenced to six years, with four of those suspended if he received treatment. Due to backlash, the sentence was extended to six years. After just four a half, Payne was released. It was reported in 2009 that the church had furnished him with an income from a fund meant for “charitable purposes".

John Francis Duffy

In the early 1980s, two men terrorized London, sexually assaulting a string of women near train stations. By 1986, several women were also murdered. Police soon arrested one of the men responsible, John Duffy, who had been born in Dundalk, Ireland, but raised in England. He was convicted of two murders and four sexual assaults. By the late 90s, Duffy admitted to further crimes, and announced his accomplice as his friend David Mulcahy. In 2001, Mulcahy received three life sentences, while Duffy had an additional 12 years added to his imprisonment.

Alfred Taylor

In the late nineteenth century, Dublin-born Alfred Taylor fought as a mercenary, enforcing British colonial rule in Africa. He later served as a captain of the British Army in the Second Boer War. He embarked on a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing, and has been described by historians as ruthless and sadistic. In 1901, he was accused of war crimes, including the murders of unarmed men and boys. Taylor was also suspected of killing witnesses. It was one of the first war crimes trials in British history, but he managed to dodge the charges, while some of the men under him were executed.

William Burke & William Hare

In 1827, a lodger at the house of William Hare in Edinburgh, Scotland, perished. Hare was frustrated, as the lodger had owed him money. So, with the help of friend William Burke, who also hailed from Northern Ireland, he sold the body to anatomist Robert Knox for research. The following year, the duo went on a spree, slaying 16 people and selling their bodies to Knox. After the police caught them, Hare was given immunity for confessing to the crimes, while Burke was executed. Knox was cleared of complicity, although the public remained extremely suspicious. After Hare was released, he disappeared, never to be heard from again.