‘We’re asking God to give us justice that Daddy deserves’

The daughter of a man who was murdered and left in a farm pit for almost two years yesterday prayed for justice for her father as he was finally given a proper burial.

Almost two years since he went missing near Bansha in Co Tipperary, 52-year-old grandfather Bobby Ryan was laid to rest in his native Cashel after funeral Mass in the Church of St John the Baptist, yards from the house where he grew up on Friar St.

Gardaí are treating the case as a murder inquiry. The remains were found at the bottom of a pit on farmland in Fawnagown, between Bansha and Tipperary town, three weeks ago.

During a heart-wrenching address to mourners at the end of yesterday’s ceremony, his daughter Michelle said a cloud had hung over the family since Jun 3, 2011, when the popular truck driver and DJ went missing, but now a chink of light was breaking through.

The family could, she said, at last give him a funeral and “bury him in the cemetery among his own people.”

Supported by her brother Robert, Michelle said they should not be in the church for her father’s funeral. “Dad should be ringing us now, from his truck, on his tea break or lunch break, spending 20 minutes talking about nothing,” she said.

“God didn’t take Daddy from us, someone else playing God did that, and we’re asking God today to give us some justice that Daddy deserves.”

They waited two years to find Bobby, said Michelle, and prayed every day “that we would find Daddy, that Daddy would be back”.

“I’m not going to say goodbye to Daddy, because that’s too final and I know wherever we go, he’s going to be mooching in, thinking he would miss something... So I’m just going to say that I’ll see you later.”

Michelle thanked all who had helped with the search since Jun 2011, including the mountain rescue teams, gardaí, friends, family members, and even strangers who searched for the missing man.

Chief celebrant Fr Bernie Moloney said Bobby’s family and friends had known “the bitter taste of lamentation” over the last two years. He also reflected on Bobby’s life as a family man, friend, and entertainer, known as Mr Moonlight. “Bobby had music in his heart and soul — Mr Moonlight touched the hearts of many, set the lips laughing and the feet dancing,” he said.