Kidnapped

Kidnapping is a particularly heartless crime. Not only is the victim held in conditions of physical and psychological stress, his or her family suffer the trauma of knowing that their loved one has been taken by force and that they are powerless to help. A.J. Davidson’s Kidnapped is an account of twelve Irish kidnappings of the last thirty years. It starts in 1972 with the family of Noel Curran, held hostage by the Littlejohn brothers who were MI6 agents, leading to Ireland’s largest bank robbery. It then tells of Thomas Niedermeyer, a German industrialist in Belfast kidnapped and murdered by the IRA. In the Republic, the case of Dr Tiede Herrema in 1975 was one of the most sensational criminal episodes in the history of the state. Other famous names recalled in Kidnapped are Don Tidey, Jennifer Guinness, Ben Dunne and Brian Keenan. Not to mention Shergar, the 1982 Epsom Derby winner for whom a ransom of IR Punt 2m. was demanded. This contrasts with ponies from Fossett’s circus for whom ransom demands of Euro200 are par for the course.