Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
Cassidy dealt with her share of murder victims – mainly stabbings. Weapons ranged from a seemingly innocuous pencil to ornamental samurai swords (the latter, she says, were "a common feature on living room walls in 1980s Glasgow"). Cassidy notes that violence against women differs from that perpetrated against men. “The majority of women are killed by someone known to them,” Cassidy says. I was particularly fascinated with Dr Cassidy’s involvement with the UN and the uncovering of mass graves in war-torn countries. She became part of a team involved in assisting with the identification of the dead. A mammoth task with ‘the numbers so overwhelming that we thought we would never be able to identify all the remains recovered’. Dr Cassidy’s portrayal of the scenes she witnessed are incredibly disconcerting, surrounded by a very unpredictable political climate and rudimentary facilities. She added: ‘It is just a complete contrast because I spent all my career with very serious solemn stuff. You live in that world and it’s quite difficult to escape from because you can’t be seen to be frivolous when you’re dealing with very important matters to families. Well, Sarah is an assistant fashion buyer with River Island and my son Kieran is a lawyer with Arthur Cox. And no, I’ll never be a grandmother, because they’re just like me and don’t like kids either! [laughing again] Pic: Lili Forberg for VIP Magazine
Advances in DNA and forensics only eventually led to Nash being arrested for the two murders, with him being sentenced to two more life sentences in 2015.
Forensic pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy on her life at the frontline of death
The scene, we learn in a gripping though upsetting first episode of a new season of Dr Cassidy’s Casebook (RTÉ One, Monday, 9.35pm), was Grangegorman, a shuttered mental hospital converted into sheltered accommodation. When I was called out to the scene the assumption was that this was a straight fire death,” Dr Cassidy said.
And you were away a lot. Such devotion to the job was required that you spent literally years on call. Your colleagues, you say, became your friends, your husband, a single parent. For over three decades you ate, slept and breathed death. The main thing was identification and to make sure the bodies were returned to their families. It wasn't like a murder elsewhere where you are conscious of not losing forensic evidence. The main concern was to get these bodies out as intact as we possibly could so we could identify them." She worked as a consultant forensic pathologist in the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology in Glasgow for 13 years. That's when she got the call from Ireland's then state pathologist Professor John Harbison about a post as his deputy and so, in 1998, she moved with her Scottish husband Philip and young son and daughter, Kieran and Sarah, to Dublin. Cassidy will continue to appear in Irish courts until all the cases she’s been involved in have been processed. And given her two-book deal with Hachette, she’ll complete at least one more O’Brien novel. She writes long hand at first draft, types with two fingers and doesn’t plot ahead.
Dr Marie Cassidy, who was Ireland’s state pathologist for 14 years, arrives at Phoenix Park in Dublin in 2013. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
With Donegal roots, the former State pathologist grew up in Glasgow and has an older brother and a younger sister. As someone with such a successful career, Marie Cassidy seems like the type of person that always works hard at what she does — whether it’s in her field or on the dance floor. People think there’s somebody out there who’s done all of that and there may well be, but none of us know, it’s all speculation.” That was really bizarre because I had been doing the same job over in Glasgow for many, many years and nobody knew who we were," she explained.The Irish psyche is very similar to the Scottish psyche, so it wasn't a huge cultural difference when we arrived." Read More Related Articles On the drive over, her garda escorts had regaled her with tales of bodies found in the park and how, in their considered opinion, this was probably just another ‘junkie’. Terry hated that term. While she welcomes that shift, it's made her role somewhat redundant. She went from being an integral part of the team to being on the fringes looking in. "They don't need someone like me any more - they need someone who will come in and embrace technology, that's not me. We didn't even have computers when I was at school!" Beyond the Tape is not a book for the squeamish and most definitely not a book to be read while eating. There are disturbing scenes of quite a graphic nature so be prepared. It is, however, a compelling and very unique opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes ‘exposé’ of pathology and all it’s workings from the perspective of this true power-house of a woman. A few years later guns entered the fray. "Up until then, Glasgow had a reputation as 'Stab City' and it was mainly knife crime we were dealing with," she says. "There was a change in the gangland killings. All of a sudden, we had this spate of shootings."
They cause the bulk of everything. Even the admissions to hospitals. The strain it puts on the health service is massive. Pic: Lili Forberg for VIP Magazine Hachette Books Ireland has acquired the debut crime novel of former Irish state pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy in a two-book deal. I couldn’t allow myself to stray into anything else. I had to have tunnel vision for 40 years and just concentrate on what I was doing. I missed a lot in life… The house’s commanding vista was, that afternoon, marred by a haphazard arrangement of garda cars and vans. The book is certainly not “rubbish”; it’s a pacy and entertaining read with a witty protagonist, full of gumption. “Don’t be such a jessie,” O’Brien tells her love interest, detective chief inspector John Fraser. And when he’s too polite, she calls him “Mr Darcy”. She tells another friend, Michael Flynn, a forensic scientist, not to be “so precious”. There’s no room for over-sensitivity in her life. Toughness and strength of character are required, as they are for real life pathologists.Donning the sequins and spray tan, Marie is world away from her esteemed career which saw her on every high-profile murder case in the country. Dr Marie Cassidy has admitted she’s ‘missed a lot in life’ due to the nature of her career ahead of her DWTS debut on Sunday evening. Pic: Barry McCall Photography happened. At the centre of this investigation was Manuela, and our hope was to do her justice. We stood around her — as if we could shield her from more harm, forming a closed circle. Each of us was directly linked to her, each forensic expert and investigator abutting the next but never stepping into the space of their neighbour. The circle around her grew with each step of the investigation, from scene to court, as the family, friends, witnesses, the DPP, the judge and the jury joined it, all looking inwards towards Manuela. She became Ireland’s State Pathologist from 2004 until 2018, her image synonymous with breaking news of high-profile cases – a trusted figure in turbulent times. That’s for sure. Marie admitted that, as a doctor, she’s more comfortable with dead bodies than live ones. But that’s the beauty of the medical profession – there are all sorts of jobs for all sorts of people:
Great Deal 
New Comment