Cold Files, Warm Tea

Historical unsolved cases told carefully, over a brew

Declan Mulvaney2 episodes1 min of audio85 playsEpisodic

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S1 · E2Sep 1, 20260:4651 plays Preview

The Isdal Woman: Nine Passports and a Valley Near Bergen

In 1970 a woman was found in Norway's Isdalen valley with every label removed from her belongings. Declan examines the coded diary, the hotel registrations and the 2016 forensic reinvestigation.

S1 · E1Jul 7, 20260:4034 plays Members

The Somerton Man: A Body, a Book and a Torn Scrap of Paper

In December 1948 a well dressed man was found on an Adelaide beach with no identification. Declan follows the physical evidence, the Rubaiyat clue and the 2022 identification that finally gave him a n…

About the show

Cold Files, Warm Tea is a gentle, well researched walk through historical mysteries that were never fully solved. Declan Mulvaney is a retired Garda archivist, and each fortnight he picks one case that is at least fifty years old, lays out what the original investigators actually knew, and then separates the documented facts from the folklore that grew up afterwards. There is no gore and no speculation about who did it for entertainment's sake. The people involved are treated as people. The format is a solo narration with occasional phone conversations with historians and retired detectives, and most episodes run around 40 minutes. It suits listeners who like the Somerton Man or the Isdal Woman more as puzzles of evidence than as thrillers, and who want to finish an episode knowing more and feeling calmer than when they started.

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