Podcast: New drama explores the murder of Mr Moonlight

A new five-part RTÉ drama will revisit the disappearance and murder of Tipperary DJ Bobby Ryan, known as Mr Moonlight.

Ryan disappeared in June 2011. His body was found almost two years later in an underground tank on a farm. Patrick Quirke was convicted of the murder in 2019 after a trial that drew widespread attention in Ireland.

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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.

Crime journalist Barry Cummins covered the trial and later made a documentary about the case. Speaking on Behind the Story, he described Quirke as controlling and recalled watching him enter and leave court while on bail during the murder proceedings.

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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.

Cummins said questions remain about what happened on the morning of June 3, 2011, when Ryan left for work at a quarry. He said Ryan’s van did not start for about five minutes, and that “something happens then.” Cummins also questioned aspects of how Quirke found the body, saying it would have been difficult to see inside the tank without strong lights.

Quirke was arrested in 2013 and convicted on circumstantial evidence in May 2019. The drama, “The Murder of Mr Moonlight,” is expected to air on RTÉ in 2027.

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I don’t know, but something happens then.