“In the event of nuclear war, West Cork was considered the safest place in Europe, on account of the prevailing winds.” Charles McCarthy is explaining why Albert Bachmann – declared  “Switzerland’s least effective spymaster” by The New York Times when he died in 2011 – bought the Liss Ard estate just outside Skibbereen in the early 1970s. “There was always a certain aura of mystery surrounding him,” says former Cork South-West TD Jim O’Keeffe who knew Bachmann at that time through his role as a local solicitor. “But he was a lovely fella,” he added. The aura of mystery attached…

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