‘I hope you can f ind it in your heart to forgive me’
Mary Lowry weeps at sentencing over fatal accident she caused
A CENTRAL witness in the Mr Moonlight murder trial has been given a fully suspended one-year jail sentence and a one-year driving ban, after she admitted careless driving causing the death of a ‘master craftsman’ carpenter.
Mary Lowry, 57, of Green Road, Dundrum, Co. Tipperary, wept at Clonmel Circuit Criminal Court as Judge Catherine Staines imposed the sentence, having heard emotional testimony from the victim’s family.
Ms Lowry admitted driving her grey Volkswagen Passat without due care or attention thereby causing the death of father-of-five Patrick ‘Paddy (Flags)’ Connolly. The fatal collision occurred on the N24 Waterford to Limerick road, close to an entrance to Bansha Woods, Spring House, Bansha, Co. Tipperary, around 12.45pm on December 28, 2021.
Ms Lowry wept in court as her barrister, Pádraig de Búrca, read on her behalf a letter she had written to the Connolly family in which she apologised ‘for not paying attention’ to her driving on the day.
‘If I could change it, I would. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me and that (Patrick Connolly) can rest in peace,’ Ms Lowry wrote.
The court heard Ms Lowry had waited for around two minutes for traffic travelling on the N24 to pass by an entrance to Bansha Woods. Believing the coast was clear, she turned right out of the entrance and onto the N24.
The road, however, was not clear, and the Passat collided with a motorcycle being driven by Mr Connolly, who was carrying his 15-year-old son David Connolly as a pillion passenger.
The father and son had been participating in a charity bike event. Mr Connolly died from his injuries in hospital on January 2.
His wife Geraldine Connolly wept in court as she described the impact of her husband’s death and said she was ‘never concerned’ about him travelling on his motorbike ‘as he was always a careful driver’.
‘He (Paddy) was the love of my life. The worst thing is the silence; he is no longer breathing beside me at night. We were together for 30 years,’ Mrs Connolly said.
She said Paddy had been ‘a master craftsman, carpenter, a great father, provider and husband’. David Connolly told gardaí that moments before the collision he saw a car drive ‘into our lane, and I was thrown off the bike’. He continued: ‘I went over the car and I remember being fairly winded.’
Another witness, Philip Kiely, also a participant in the charity bike run on the day, was travelling behind Mr Connolly at the time He told gardaí a car ‘shot out in. front of him (Mr Connolly), Paddy had nowhere to go.’
Mr Kiely said he saw Mr Connolly propel ‘up in the air, and that his son went over him’ on impact with this car.
A Garda forensic report into the collision noted that road conditions and visibility were good on the day.
Senior counsel Colman Cody said Mrs Lowry’s ‘fatal and momentary lapse of concentration’ had resulted in ‘dreadful’ and ‘devastating consequences’.
‘Mary Lowry has to live with these devastating consequences. It is a sentence in itself,’ he said.
‘She recognises her momentary inattention and lack of care led to the tragedy.’
Mr Cody said Ms Lowry, who had no previous convictions, had lost her husband to cancer, leaving her to raise her three children alone. He said Ms Lowry was ‘well known’ after appearing before the Central Criminal Court in 2019 as an ‘essential witness in a highprofile murder trial that led to the prosecution of the accused in that trial – it was a very difficult and traumatising time for her’.
The murder trial of killer Patrick Quirke had heard that Ms Lowry had been in a romantic relationship with him.
Ms Lowry’s boyfriend Bobby Ryan, a popular DJ known as ‘Mr Moonlight’, went missing on June 3, 2011 after leaving her home at 6.30am. His body was found, on April 30, 2013, in an underground septic tank on Ms Lowry’s farm that was being leased by Quirke.
The prosecution in the trial claimed Quirke murdered Mr Ryan so he could rekindle an affair with Ms Lowry. Quirke is serving a mandatory life sentence in prison having lost an appeal against the verdict.
Yesterday, Judge Staines said that in the court’s opinion, Lowry’s driving was in the ‘mid-range’ of careless driving.
The charge carries a maximum two-year prison term, and/or a fine not exceeding €10,000.
Judge Staines said she believed Ms Lowry was ‘truly remorseful’, and told her she had to live with the consequences of this ‘awful event’. After the sentence was imposed, Ms Lowry wept and said: ‘Thank you, judge’ before leaving the court.
‘The worst thing is the silence’