Who killed Thomas Hodgett, Postmaster and loyalist, murdered in Navan on the 18th February 1921? His mysterious death caused shock and outrage in the town. Both the RIC and the IRA were suspected, each blamed the other and both denied responsibility. Five weeks after his kidnapping his badly decomposed body was found floating in the river Boyne. Dublin Castle said he was killed because he was friendly with the police. This claim was denied by his wife Grace, who said that the RIC killed her husband because he reported them to the authorities. The republican movement named senior police officers as the culprits. The RIC arrested an ex-postman and IRA man as a suspect, saying he had grudge against Thomas Hodgett.

New evidence ties together his killing and the murders and attempted murders of republicans, police and secret agents in Louth, Meath, and Dublin in 1920-21. Did the RIC conduct reprisal murders for the killings of their comrades by the IRA? Did Thomas Hodgett fall foul of a secret murder policy initiated by the British Government. Was he killed because of intelligence leaks in Navan P.O. or because of a personal vendetta? The case for the prosecution is presented to you, the jury. The verdict is yours alone to make based on the unfailing principle that a person is
innocent until proven guilty by a jury of their peers.

Ultan Courtney has written three other books on the revolutionary period in Meath 1900-1923. The Blinding Light is a family history of that period. The ‘Tin Hats’ is the story of the South Wales Borderers in Meath 1920-22. ‘Mapping the Revolution’ is a book of maps and diagrams charting the revolutionary activity in the county.