Ex ‘was happy for Bobby’ when he met someone new
BOBBY Ryan’s ex-girlfriend said she was ‘happy’ for the DJ when she heard he had met Mary Lowry.
Mary Glasheen, who dated Mr Ryan for three months in 2008, told the court that she occasionally socialised with the couple on the dance circuit even though her own romantic relationship with Mr Ryan had ended.
Like Ms Lowry, Ms Glasheen met Mr Ryan at the Times Hotel in Tipperary. She described Mr Ryan as ‘bubbly and kind’ and said he would ‘ask her to go out for a meal or whatever’ even after they split.
When asked how she felt when she learned he was seeing Ms Lowry, she said she was ‘delighted that he had met someone’. She later met the couple and was introduced to Ms Lowry at a local dance.
‘They seemed happy,’ she said. She would be in the company of the couple on the dance circuit alongside other friends, she added.
The court heard that on one occasion Ms Glasheen brought Mr Ryan a new mirror to wish him well after he had moved into a new house. Ms Glasheen said Mr Ryan then wanted to go for a few drinks, and that she slept on the couch in Mr Ryan’s house that night while the couple slept upstairs. They had breakfast together the next morning, she said.
Mr Ryan had also asked his ex to accompany him and Ms Lowry on a weekend away to Donegal to see musical group The Indians, but she had declined, the court heard.
She told defence counsel Bernard Condon SC she had been in touch with Mr Ryan the day before he disappeared and texted him at about 10pm that night. She didn’t receive a reply and found this unusual.
Earlier, a friend of Ms Lowry’s told the court how happy she was when the couple met. Eileen Barlow was there the night Ms Lowry met Mr Ryan at the Times Hotel. She said they ‘really connected’ and ‘seemed to be really buzzing’.
Ms Barlow spoke to Mr Ryan that night because she wanted to make sure her friend was in safe hands as Ms Lowry had had a difficult time with her husband’s illness and death. Ms Barlow said she met them again on St Patrick’s Day 2011 and got the impression they were happy together.
In his evidence, Niall Quinn, a sub-contractor at the quarry where Mr Ryan worked as a truck driver, described the deceased as punctual and a ‘perfect employee’. He said that when Mr Ryan failed to show up for work on June 3, 2011, Mr Quinn went to the deceased’s house looking for him. He didn’t find him and decided to take over Mr Ryan’s duties for the day.
Mary Ryan, the former wife of the deceased, told prosecuting counsel David Humphries BL that she split from Mr Ryan because they had grown apart. They were, she said, more like friends than husband and wife. She said they had different interests and the split was amicable.
The court heard that when she heard he was seeing Ms Lowry, she was happy for him and told him: ‘I hope everything goes well for you.’
‘Hope it all goes well for you’