Murder charge over body in slurry tank

A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a part-time DJ whose body was found in a slurry tank two years after he went missing.

Pat Quirke, aged 49, of Breanshamore, Tipperary, was arrested on Tuesday at Grangemore in Tipperary and brought to the local Garda station where he was charged on Tuesday night.

The accused was brought to a sitting of Tipperary District Court yesterday accused of murdering 52-year-old Bobby Ryan in or about June 3, 2011 at an unknown location.

Det Insp Patrick O’Callaghan told the court that, in reply to the murder charge, Pat Quirke said: “I don’t agree with the charge.” He had arrested the accused at Grangemore at 5.10pm on Tuesday and charged him at 6.30pm in Tipperary station. Mr Quirke “acknowledged he understood the contents of the charge,” Inspector O’Callaghan said.

Solicitor Aoife Corridan, for the accused, said she would be making an application for bail at a “different forum”.

Judge Marie Keane noted that the defence will be making “an application in due course to the High Court”. She remaned the accused in custody to Thurles District Court on March 28.

Several members of Bobby Ryan’s family were in court for the hearing and left immediately afterwards.

Father of two Bobby Ryan lived in Boherlahan, near Cashel in south Tipperary, and was reported missing by his family in June 2011. He had failed to appear at work at a quarry in Killough, Tipperary, and his abandoned van was found in woodland some hours later by his daughter.

Major search operations were mounted by gardaí, assisted by Mr Ryan’s family, neighbours and other members of the community, but the popular man’s remains weren’t found until April 30, 2013, when a disused concrete slurry tank on a farm at Fawnagowan, Co Tipperary, was opened.