‘It’s terrible to see a dispute ending with two men dead’

STUNNED locals were stuck for words and few could comprehend how or why a bitter, protracted dispute over land could spark a murder and a suicide in the close-knit community of Coolyhune on the Carlow/Kilkenny border.

They huddled in groups along the narrow, lonely country roadway close to where the bodies of 30-year-old Jim Healy and 38-year-old Michael Kehoe lay late on Saturday evening.

When Mick’s father, Simon Kehoe, died a few years ago, he did not have a will, neighbour Michael Cushen explained, struggling for words, his eyes fixed on the field where Jim Healy’s remains lay.

Forensics people in white suits and masks were around the body of Jim Healy in the field above and neighbours stood on their tip-toes in the centre of the narrow road below the scene, trying to get a better view.

The dead man’s shirt was open and his face was looking up towards the darkening sky from his final resting place close to a ditch. Less than a hundred yards away, in an outhouse behind the old Kehoe family home, Mick’s remains lay.

“Katherine, Mick’s older sister, got the 27 acres and Mick got the house and the yard and the remainder of the land,” the neighbour added. “John (another brother) wanted nothing. Katherine lives just a mile up the road with her partner and John lived with Mick sometimes, or he’d stay with neighbours. He’d been staying away of late.

“Katherine had been trying to sell the land for a long time but no local auctioneer would take it. Eventually, a firm in Kilkenny took it and there was an auction about a year and a half ago. A couple of local lads went to that auction and a bid was made. It ended up that it didn’t sell that day.

“The land was then for sale by private treaty. Jim Healy’s deal only went through about five weeks ago and Mick had been on the beer since. There was talk the new owner was going for planning for a site on it. Mick had tried to sell a site about a quarter of a mile just up from us to make the price of the land, but that fell through.

“A lot of people had come to look at the land while it was on the market but Mick had told them in no uncertain terms that they would not be welcome here. Nobody though could have expected what happened here.

“Mick was easy-going, a bit droll. He listened a lot to people but didn’t say much. He went to Mass every Saturday night and ran an old-style farm. He minded his own business and he never bothered anyone.

“Nobody locally would have bought the land. They just wouldn’t go near it because they knew it was disputed land. It’s terrible to see such a dispute ending with two men dead,” Mr Cushen said.

It has emerged yesterday that Mick Kehoe shot at his new neighbour three times. Mr Kehoe had also initiated civil legal proceedings against Mr Healy over the disputed property, gardaí said, but would not confirm the nature of the action.

There was an eerie silence in the area yesterday morning as locals woke up to relive the nightmare scenario in the picturesque area about four kilometres from Graiguenamanagh on the Carlow/Kilkenny border and less than a half a mile from the magnificent Carraigleade Golf Course.

There was a larger attendance than usual at the 8.30am Mass at the local Duiske Abbey. The double shooting which occurred just three miles away on Saturday was taking its toll. Parish Priest Fr Gerry Byrne asked for prayers to be said for both “afflicted families and the two men”.

There were similar scenes in Jim Healy’s home parish of Paulstown, about 20 minutes away. Parish priest, Fr Laurence Malone, had broken the bad news to Jim’s widow, Yvonne, and her seven year-old daughter from a previous relationship at their home at Butlersgrove, Gowran.

“It’s an extremely sad day. It’s a terrible tragedy. Jim came from a wonderful family. It’s a very hard thing to fathom,” he said.