West Cork - Podcast Rankings and reviews

Just brilliant. West Cork has the best sound design I’ve heard in any podcast. Wonderfully written and reported. So many podcasts in this genre feel exhibitionist, but Jennifer and Sam seem completely earnest in trying to understand what happened. They do a beautiful job of honoring Sophie’s memory while taking care to address issues of domestic violence and the shortcomings of the initial investigation. Well worth a close listen!

Captivating, well told murder mystery, but even more fascinating case study on sociopathy and domestic violence dynamics. If you work in mental health or the justice system, definitely worth a long, close listen.

If Ireland can not provide Justice for Sophie Toscan du Plantier, at minimum we should remember that SHE is the important part of this case. Really appreciated the community members who try to keep the victim in the foreground. Several deeply troubled personalities collided in wake of Sophie’s murder. The series does a fine job illustrating the veritable S*!# storm of grandiose type B personality disorders and unapologetic, inveterate lying that hijacked any substantive effort to find justice for Sophie and her family. It does not paint a sympathetic picture of Baily nor of the “eye witness”, Marie Farrell. Farrell’s repeated lies, Purjury, and flippant dismissal of the pain she’s caused Sophie’s family were grotesque in the extreme. It certainly left me with a dim view of how domestic violence is handled and wondering how truly awful one has to be before they are prosecuted for perjury and obstruction of justice (looking at you, Farrell) in Ireland.

I was familiar with this story before listening to this podcast but only on a surface level. The story/case itself is compelling and creepy. I had horribly graphic nightmares one night when I listened to this right before bed. I am prone to nightmares anyway but this show made them far worse. The images painted by the narrators are excellent, enough that I feel as though I can see Sophie reading in her house from the road myself!

I liked the production value and it is clear the creators did a lot of research here which is appreciated. My only real criticism is that the series was too long. It was a total of 14 episodes but frankly could have been adequately covered in maybe 10 or possibly even less. I admit that I did begin to lose interest in the last few episodes because it just seemed like endless stories of “a witness said Ian did this and Ian said they are lying.” It all started to sound the same after a while.

I would recommend this podcast to anyone who is interested in true crime, but just be aware of the length of the show and that somehow the story never feels like it has a proper ending—that is to say the events and resolution in real life just seem dissatisfying. Which has nothing to do with the show. The show is good. :)

Exactly what was uncovered in this journalism/investigation? I felt like each episode I kept waiting to learn what new info was brought to the surface since 1997 but I just kept hearing interviews from the original suspect and original “key witness” with no new concrete evidence or theories found. Probably could have been two episodes.

Jeez. I appreciate the work that went into this podcast but they repeat stuff 25 times. It’s like they wanted to stretch a story that could’ve been told in 1 hour into 7 hours. Unfortunately my wife and I got bored after 5 and I read the story on Wikipedia for closure.