‘Quirke told me rumours that Polish people had killed Ryan’
Witnesses worked on farm
A FARM worker has told the Mr Moonlight murder trial that the accused, Patrick Quirke, told him he heard that Polish people were involved in the killing of local DJ Bobby Ryan. Gary Cunningham said he had started a work placement on Mr Quirke’s farm at Breanshamore, Co. Tipperary, in February 2013, milking and feeding cows.
He told the court that after Mr Ryan’s body was discovered in a run-off tank at Fawnagown, outside Tipperary, in April of that year, he had ‘one quick conversation’ with Mr Quirke about it.
Mr Quirke asked him if he had heard any rumours about what had happened, and Mr Cunningham said he hadn’t, the court heard. Mr Cunningham said Mr Quirke then commented that he heard a ‘Polish group’ were involved in Mr Ryan’s murder.
In re-examination, Mr Cunningham said that there ‘were so many rumours going round’ at the time that he couldn’t recall if he had heard the Polish rumour from anyone other than Mr Quirke.
Mr Cunningham, who was studying agricultural science in 2013, told the court that he was not aware of the tank where the body was found. To the best of his knowledge, he added, the area where it was located was used as a grazing paddock.
Mr Cunningham said he was off work on the day the body was found because he was recovering from a kick he received from a cow the Friday before. He had returned to work the day after Mr Ryan’s remains were located. He said Mr Quirke told him to go up to collect the tractor and vacuum tanker from Fawnagown as it needed to go back to the Quirke farm. The witness said it was ‘around the back of the farm somewhere’.
Asked about the morning routine at Breanshamore, he said that milking started at about 7.30am or 8am in the milking parlour. It normally took himself and Mr Quirke between one hour 45 minutes and two hours to milk cows, from milking to wash-up. They would normally finish around 9am, the court heard.
Asked about the spreading of slurry on the farm at Fawnagown, Mr Cunningham said he carried it out when he was there, using a tractor on the back of a tanker.
Mr Quirke, 50, of Breanshamore, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Bobby Ryan, 52, a DJ known as Mr Moonlight, on a date between June 3, 2011 and April 2013. Mr Ryan’s body was found by Mr Quirke in an underground tank on Mary Lowry’s farm almost two years after he went missing.
Mr Quirke had been having an affair with widow Ms Lowry, whose farmland he was renting, and prosecutors allege that he murdered Mr Ryan because the deceased had begun a relationship with Ms Lowry.
Another witness, Emmet Kenny, who had also started working with Mr Quirke on a work placement scheme, also gave evidence at the Central Criminal Court.
In October 2018, Mr Kenny went to Fawnagown with gardaí and pointed out to them a septic tank in a field in front of Ms Lowry’s house, around which Mr Kenny erected a fence when he started working for Mr Quirke in 2009. He put up this fence, he said, because Mr Quirke told him that a heifer had suffered an injury to her leg when it got caught between gaps in the concrete. He accepted under cross-examination that he was not there when the heifer was injured and that ‘it’s quite possible’ he was wrong in thinking the heifer was injured at that tank.
He added that he always thought the tank where Mr Ryan’s body was found was an old septic tank.
Accused ‘told him of travel plans’
This witness said he knew of the tank where Mr Ryan’s body was found because he regularly did jobs around that area. He said he thought it was an old septic tank and recalled a ditch beside it where cattle sheltered from the rain. Cattle would walk on top of the tank but they had no effect on the concrete slabs covering it, he said. Mr Kenny said he never fenced off the tank.
In relation to Ms Lowry, Mr Kenny said he had seen her about 20 times in total. He would see her ‘around the yard’ where she had a greenhouse. He recalled Mr Quirke telling him Ms Lowry had a good farm, but they never discussed her, apart from that. Under crossexamination, he said he never spread slurry in either Breanshamore or Fawnagown. He said contractors spread slurry at both farms: Patrick O’Donnell at Fawnagown and another contractor at Breanshamore.
He said he recalled Mr Quirke being away over the bank holiday weekend in June 2013. Mr Quirke had told him about his travel plans about two weeks in advance, and asked him if he would be around to do chores on that weekend, the court heard. Mr Kenny said he arrived that Friday at about 5.30pm to milk the cows and noticed two bulls in a field about 70 yards from the cows.
The day after the discovery of Mr Ryan’s body, Mr Kenny met Mr Quirke at Breanshamore, the court heard. Mr Quirke asked: ‘Did you hear?’ and the witness replied: ‘I did, yes’ – and that was all that was said, the court heard. The trial continues.