Gardaí have returned to a disused quarry in Co Wicklow in a search that’s reopened two of Ireland’s most haunting unsolved cases. More than 30 years after they disappeared, the names Jo Jo Dullard and Deirdre Jacob remain etched into the story of the so-called “Vanishing Triangle” — a cluster of missing women cases across Leinster in the 1990s. Now, a new line of inquiry has led investigators back to the Wicklow–Kildare border, where a concentrated excavation is under way. 

On today’s podcast, investigative journalist and author Barry Cummins joins Ciara Doherty to describe the scene at Castleruddery Upper, explain what Gardaí believe may be buried there, and outline how this latest search connects to long-standing theories about potential links between the two cases. 

They discuss the history of earlier searches, the role of a “person of interest,” and why cases once thought cold can be revived decades later through persistence, new information and advances in forensic work. Most of all, this episode reflects on the families of Jo Jo Dullard and Deirdre Jacob who have lived through years of false dawns — and what this latest development could mean for them. 

Barry Cummins is the author of Missing: The Unsolved Cases of Ireland’s Vanished Women and Children.