On 3rd June 2011, Robert Ryan, a part time DJ with the stage name Mr. Moonlight, from outside Tipperary Town in County Tipperary went missing. On May 1st, 2019, Patrick Quirke, a farmer from Co. Tipperary, was charged with the murder of Bobby Ryan in the Central Criminal Court in Dublin, Ireland. This tale of love, jealousy and greed which was the longest murder trial in Irish justice history shook Ireland to the core and will be a talking point in Irish houses for years to come. This is the murder of Mr. Moonlight.
In 2007, on a farm located just outside Tipperary Town in County Tipperary by the name of Fawnagowan, a farmer by the name of Martin Lowry died, leaving his widowed wife Mary and three young boys. Mary Lowry decided to elicit help from a local farmer by the name of Pat Quirke to take care of the herd and assist in the maintaining of finances. Lowry and Quirke decided to turn a business arrangement into a romantic one and began an intimate relationship with one another over the following weeks and months.
In 2010 Mary Lowry met a local DJ, Bobby Ryan and began a relationship with him. Discovering this, Pat Quirke became increasingly jealous and confronted Lowry about her relationship with Bobby Ryan resulting in heated arguments.
In late 2010 Pat Quirke met with Bobby Ryan in a hotel in a local town to discuss his relationship with Mary Lowry and to demand that Ryan break it off, Ryan refused.
On June 3 2011 Bobby Ryan left the house in Fawnagowen to go to work. Mary Lowry noticed that Pat Quirke was in the driveway looking ‘hot and bothered’. Quirke then left Fawnagowen. Bobby Ryan’s phone last pinged a signal in Fawnagowen. He was never seen alive again. In the following weeks and months Quirke and Lowry reignited their relationship, staying in Hotels throughout the country. Meanwhile a search was being carried out to try and find the missing Bobby Ryan whose car was found in a nearby car park for the local woods. In the next few months Pat Quirke became increasingly possessive of Lowry, peaking through windows at night, stealing underwear from the washing line, and entering the home without permission.
In April 2013 Pat Quirke made a call to his wife Imelda which lead to a case which shook Ireland to its core.
What happened on that fateful day? How did Quirke get caught? Next week on Murder Mondays, a full timeline of events of the Murder of Mr. Moonlight. Thanks for reading.
By Galina Kennedy
Quite the Detectives... 