A new five-part drama ‘The Murder of Mr Moonlight’ has been commissioned by RTÉ and is expected to be broadcast next year.
The drama tells the story of the disappearance and murder of Tipperary DJ Bobby Ryan, aka Mr Moonlight.
He disappeared in June 2011 and his body was discovered almost two years later in an underground tank on a farm.
Patrick Quirke was found guilty of his murder in 2019 in a case that gripped the country.
Crime journalist Barry Cummins covered the trial at the time and made a documentary about it.
He told Behind the Story that Quirke came across to him as a controlling character.
“I used to watch him walking in and out of court – he was on bail throughout the murder trial – and his whole way of being, I could see what I would now believe to be a controlling character,” he said.
“He was very self-assured, he’d walk in a particular way.
“I think he would have applied that to the farm at Fawnagowan as well.”
Patrick Quirke had been in a relationship with Mary Lowry, but she had ended it and had started seeing Bobby Ryan. Mr Quirke was not happy about this new relationship and had confronted Mr Ryan previously about it.
3 June 2011
Mr Cummins said questions remain about what happened on the morning of 3 June in 2011.
“At about 6.25am Bobby headed off, he was going to do a day’s work at the quarry, and normally he’d be gone from the house and get in the van and be gone and Mary would hear the van,” he said.
“That morning, the van didn’t start for about five minutes… it’s quite possible that Bobby was dead within those few minutes, or he stunned, knocked unconscious, injured, taken away in the van.
“I don’t know, but something happens then.”
Finding the body
Nearly two years later, Mr Ryan’s body was found by Quirke, Mr Cummins said a number of elements did not make sense.
“What he has orchestrated is, ‘If I find the body, I’m the least suspect of anyone here’.
“He had lifted off a part of the covering (of the underground tank), but the way he was saying he’d seen a body down in it… but when Gardaí looked, they’d say you’d struggle to see anything.
“It was dark, there was a small bit of water, but you’d actually need to be shining big lights in there to see anything – he wasn’t talking about that.”
Guilty verdict
Arrested in 2013, Patrick Quirke was found guilty of the murder of Bobby Ryan in May 2019 with circumstantial evidence.
Mr Cummins says that he will be interested in watching the drama when it comes out and that he is always interested in programmes that may prompt questions or learnings for unsolved cases.
‘The Murder of Mr Moonlight’ will air on RTÉ in 2027.
You can listen to Behind the Story on the RTÉ Listen app.
You can also find episodes on Apple here, or on Spotify here.