But the question of what really happened to Fr Niall Molloy that night remains unanswered to this day. As the story broke the following day the whole country was agog and rife with rumour.
Had the owner of the house - Richard Flynn, caught his wife Therese and Fr Molloy in a compromising position? Therese & the Priest were childhood friends and business partners - Was it an argument over money?
Richard Flynn told Gardaí that he had been viciously attacked by his wife and the Priest, in a row over drink. He said he acted in self-defence, striking them both, the priest at least 3 times.
He was charged with manslaughter and with causing actual bodily harm.
The case seemed to have the all ingredients of a salacious paperback crime novel.
A true 1980's Irish Scandal. Richard Flynn's trial which was expected to last several days was over in just 3½ hours! The defence counsel claimed it was possible that Fr Molloy died due to heart failure and the presiding judge,
Frank Roe, directed the jury to bring in a verdict of not guilty. Flynn was acquitted on all charges.
The family of Fr Molloy outraged at the outcome, started a campaign through the media and political lobbying.
Great public disquiet was aroused & there were calls for a public inquiry. This was not to happen but Alan Dukes, then Minister for Justice, promised that the coroners inquest would be a 'sworn public inquiry'.
Where the trial took only hours the inquest took place over 2 days. All the evidence available was thoroughly sifted.
Richard and Therese Flynn both took the stand during the inquest but Richard Flynn couldn't remember anything that happened after he had struck the priest and Therese Flynn remembered nothing of a fight, nothing at all about what happened.
The jury deliberated for just thirteen minutes before coming back with the verdict sought by the Molloy family laywers.
They found that Fr Niall Molloy died as a result of head injuries.
Scannal looks back at this amazing story which had the whole nation talking.
Who was Fr. Niall Molloy and what was the relationship between him & Therese Flynn - with whom he bought and sold horses & land. The intriguing events leading up to the killing and following it - Missing wills and dodgy insurance claims added to the mystery and whiff of scandal which never really went away.
www.rte.ie/tv/scannal/episode1.html
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MURDERED Sunday Independent journalist Veronica Guerin was told her phone conversations with a garda about paedophile priest Sean Fortune were bugged by the same recording system which is only now coming under scrutiny.
The concerns that Veronica had stemmed from an apparent tip-off she received from a senior garda source in Dublin who told her that her conversations with a garda source in Wexford had been recorded. One of her sources for the story about the priest was local activist Billy Moroney, a former Labour Party member who, along with Fethard-on-Sea farmer Sean Cloney has since died, had built up files on Sean Fortune and other clerical abusers in the south east.
Mr Moroney said that as part of her investigations, Veronica had been in touch with a garda who was also concerned about Fortune, who was effectively being shielded by the church.
He told the Sunday Independent: "She (Veronica) rang me early on a Sunday morning, around 7.30pm, and told me to contact (the garda) and tell him their conversations had been bugged. She had been at a social function in Dublin on the Saturday night and some senior garda had told her about it. She was catching a flight to Manchester for a match in Old Trafford on the Sunday morning. She was adamant that I talk to (the garda) face to face.
"I drove to Wexford that afternoon and lucky enough he was in the station. I told him what Veronica said. I think he was already aware of what was happening. He was nervous and didn't want to say too much.
"She rang me again that night around 10.30 when she got back to Dublin to ask if I had met him as she said if I couldn't get him she was going to drive down first thing on the Monday morning."
Mr Moroney said the reason Veronica believed her conversations were being relayed to the hierarchy related to a letter of apology the church had sent to the parents of one of Fortune's victims. The boy and his parents had made a complaint to the church and the boy was brought to the All Hallows clerical centre in Dublin and questioned by senior clerics. A letter of apology was then sent to the boy and his parents.
Mr Moroney said: "(The mother) tore up the letter and burnt it. She didn't want her other children knowing what had happened to her son. Veronica would have been speaking about this with (the garda). As she was writing about this (the hierarchy) were saying: 'there is no letter'. She believed they had been tipped off that (the mother) had destroyed the letter."
A journalist had made an initial compliant about Fortune and, shortly after, Colm O'Gorman, who was a schoolboy in Wexford and subsequently became a prominent rights activist, also made a statement to gardai that Fortune had raped him.
Fortune was eventually arrested and charged with multiple counts of rape and sexual assault. At the time of his arrest he was sharing a house in Gorey, Co Wexford, with a teenage boy who was also selling sex to men in Dublin's Phoenix Park. It was this young man who was in Labour Party TD Emmet Stagg's car the night he was cautioned by gardai in the Park.
(SOURCE: The Sunday Independent).
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Shane Tuohey’s body was found in 2002 in the River Brosna in Clara Co Offaly following a night out with friends. The Gardai were swift to conclude that Shane had killed himself but there was a lot of evidence – pointing towards the possibility of foul play – that was not considered by the guards in a timely fashion.
The scene where his body was found was not preserved for forensic examination. No attempt was made to recover CCTV of the night he disappeared and the one tape that was secured was subsequently lost. Allegations of an assault on Shane were not investigated until six months later. Gardai produced a witness statement from a woman claiming Shane was suicidal that was later denied in its entirety by the woman.
I investigated this case first eight years ago and to my amazement got a letter from the then Garda Commissioner admitting the investigation could have been “more professional”. But they stood by that investigation and the system has turned a deaf ear on the Tuohey’s quest for justice since then.
The Tuohey family have been dogged though. Gradually securing more and more paperwork that raises more and more questions about the Gardai’s prosecution of the case, and the Department of Justice’s commitment to transparency. They recently obtained one document that I had sought eight years ago. It bears a handwritten note which reads “Not to be seen by Philip Boucher-Hayes”.
www.philipboucher-hayes.com/2014/08/13/little-faith-in-alleged-garda-corruption-probe/
(This podcast from Drivetime (* Link is at the bottom of article) is a short summary of a very detailed and complex case).
One of the first actions taken by Frances Fitzgerald when she suceeded from Alan Shatter at the Department of Justice was to establish an Independent Review Mechanism into the allegations of Garda Corruption made to Government. That review will now consider 220 separate cases including some allegations involving the possibility of wrongful deaths, of cover up or failure to investigate a crime and of possible Garda brutality.
Several I have spoken to are worried that if they are not interviewed the Independent Review Mechanism might be given a very partial or self serving version of events. Because the Garda file is by no means the totality of evidence that should be considered.
Given their history of antagonism with the Gardai and with the Department of Justice they say they can have little faith in a Review Mechanism that doesn’t at the very least hear from them. The Minister promised them they would now be heard, but many are feeling that the system is once again finding a way to turn a deaf ear.
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(SOURCE:Previous Related Article Published On: 20th December 2013):
The Department of Justice says there are no plans for a review into the death of Clara man Shane Tuohey.
His family have renewed their appeals for an independent examination of all files relating to his death.
Their call came after Alan Shatter appointed Barrister Dominic McGinn to assess the cold case review of Fr Niall Molloy's killing.
23 year old Shane went missing almost 12 years ago and was found dead in the Brosna river.
His death was attributed to accidental drowning, but his family suspect foul play.
His Father Eamonn says the (www Justice4all ie) group wants an independent body set up:
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(SOURCE:Previous Related Article: Published On:/06/12/2008).
*THE father of "suicide victim" Shane Tuohey has called on the justice minister to appoint independent investigators to review his son's death.
Eamon Tuohey's 23-year-old son was pulled from an Offaly river in 2002 after a night out.
The father does not accept Garda and Coroners Court findings that his son died accidentally or killed himself.
In a new documentary he says: "I am looking for somebody other than the Garda to come in and look at statements and talk to people and get the facts.
Mr Tuohey is to appear in court tomorrow on charges relating to threatening people.
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A 55-year-old man who threatened to kill three men he erroneously believed to be involved in the death of his son has received a five-year suspended sentence at the Central Criminal Court.
Eamon Tuohey, of Derry Cooley, Rahan, Tullamore, Co Offaly, had admitted making a threat to Garda Insp Aidan Boyle that he would kill Noel Kidney, Joe Gallagher and Frankie Kenna.
The threat was made in Rahan on October 3, 2006. Mr Justice Barry White heard that Tuohey's son, Shane, died by drowning in February 2002 in the Brosna River.
Tuohey was dissatisfied with the garda investigation into the death and wrongly believed that the three men were involved in the tragedy.
He complained to the Minister for Justice, who ordered an inquiry into the investigation of the death.
The inquiry took place in November 2005 and Tuohey later made the threat to kill the men during a conversation with gardai.
Det Insp Eamon Boyle told John O'Kelly, prosecuting, that he and Det Gda Pat Scully met Tuohey and his son Edwin about a separate matter at a location near the Tuohey home.
Det Insp Boyle said he had discussed the issues surrounding Shane's death with Tuohey several times and spoke to him for two hours on this occasion
He said Tuohey put a number of scenarios to the gardai which they had no evidence to support. Det Insp Boyle said Tuohey grew very angry and "flew into a rage".
Tuohey said "I'll kill those three lads and kill myself because I am not afraid". He repeated the threat and stormed off. Det Insp Boyle said he took the threat very seriously and immediately reported the matter, recommending that the three men be cautioned about their personal security.
Mr Justice White heard that Tuohey was a father of two sons and three daughters. He was a farmer and turf cutter and has been consumed by the death of his son.
Eamon Tuohey was not happy with the ensuing investigation and alleged that his son had somehow been "abused" by the three men.
Inquiry
The Government inquiry did not satisfy Tuohey either and it was in a context of frustration that he made the threat.
Martin Giblin, defending, said his client made the threat when "beside himself with grief and extremely distraught" and apologised to the men.
Gda Sgt John Walsh gave victim impact evidence on behalf of the three men. Joe Gallagher (25) said his social life had been curtailed and he had become fearful and reclusive.
He had installed CCTV and an alarm system in his house. Sgt Walsh said Noel Kidney (48) had become a nervous wreck who realised he could have been killed when Tuohey pleaded guilty to making the threat.
Frankie Kenna (26) feared his two young children would be left without a father.
Mr Justice White made it a condition of the suspension of the five-year sentence that Tuohey would not contact the men and would enter into a good behaviour bond.
RTÉ - Drivetime
www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podcast_drivetime.xml
Shane Tuohey Death - Philip Boucher-Hayes reports . ... Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald reacts to the report on her Department's workings.
Drivetime Tuesday 12 August 2014 -
Drivetime - RTÉ Radio 1 www.rte.ie/radio1/drivetime/
programmes/2014/0812/636733... Cached Death of Shane Tuohey. His family expresses lack of confidence in Dept of Justice review of the case.
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