In this study, we explore how the Phoenix Park murders were written about in public and private discourse, utilising the Nineteenth Century Newspaper Corpus, personal diaries and historiography. With the use of social actor analysis (van Leeuwen, 2008), we examine how events underwent ‘transformations’ as they moved from reality to record, and how over time these records worked to shape the dynamics of memory, particularly in relation to notions of accountability. Gladstone was blamed by The Times for allowing the murders to take place but, by focussing on personal relationships, the Liberal press portrayed events far more sympathetically. Soon after Gladstone’s death, an influential biography by his friend, John Morley, worked to prove that Gladstone’s reputation was beyond reproach.