The late Fr. Niall Molloy

New enquiry into Fr. Niall Molloy case ruled out

Despite the fact that a 2015 report into the violent death of Roscommon priest, Fr. Niall Molloy, at the home of county Offaly couple, Richard and Teresa Flynn, 36 years ago detailed shortcoming in the original investigation, the Government has very firmly ruled out any new enquiry into the controversial case.

In extending the sympathies of the government to Fr. Molloy’s family in the Dail last week on it’s “terrible loss” and for the “grief and trauma” that the tragedy had caused them in the years since his death, Fianna Fail Junior Justice Minister, James Browne, said it was “unlikely that any further enquiry would have a reasonable prospect of establishing the truth” due to “the passage of time, the death of many of the pertinent witnesses and the reluctance of others to give evidence.”

Minister Browne was responding to calls from Sinn Féin TD for Sligo-Leitrim, Deputy Martin Kenny, for the establishment of a Commission of Investigation into the death of Fr. Molloy, which he raised during a Topical Issues debate.

Deputy Kenny described the killing of Fr. Molloy, who was parish priest of Castlecoote in county Roscommon at the time of his death in 1985, as “a scandal that has gone on for too long” and said “we have had 36 years of cover up and an unwillingness of the State to examine the issue.”

The Sinn Féin Deputy said “from the beginning, it was clear that every effort was made to smother what was happening” and he called on the Minister for Justice to establish a Commission of Investigation which would have the powers to “compel people to tell the truth about what happened.”

Deputy Kenny’s call was backed up by his Sinn Féin colleague from Roscommon-Galway, Clare Kerrane, who told the Topical Issues debate on Thursday of last week that Fr. Niall Molloy “was a person, his life mattered” and that 36 years later “there have been no answers and, more importantly, there has been no justice” for either Fr. Molloy or for his family. “I cannot begin to imagine the pain of that” she added.

While she admitted that the killing of Fr. Niall Molloy had happened before she was born, Deputy Kerrane said there was “not one person growing up in county Roscommon who does not know” about the case. “There is no doubt in my mind that this was a cover up, it is wrong” she said.

The Minister for State at the Department of Justice, Deputy James Browne, said the establishment of a Commission of Investigation would be “inappropriate at the current juncture” because it was “unlikely” that any further enquiry would “have a reasonable prospect of establishing the truth.”

Deputy Martin Kenny said he was “surprised and deeply annoyed” that the Government would refuse a Commission of Investigation given what was put before the public in recent weeks in relation to the death of Fr. Molloy, while Deputy Clare Kerrane called on the Department of Justice to re-examine its position.