Unsolved murder of Moate soldier recalled in poignant documentary

The unsolved murders of Moate resident Private Patrick Kelly and Garda recruit Gary Sheehan in Leitrim in 1983 were the subject of a poignant RTE documentary last week.

The killings of the two men, carried out by IRA operatives who had kidnapped supermarket CEO Don Tidey, were the focus of an episode of The Case I Can't Forget on RTE One on Monday last, December 6.

Pte Kelly's son, David, and his friend, PJ Higgins, were among those who were interviewed for the programme about the murders and their aftermath.

The two men went to the scene of the tragic incident, at Derrada Wood in Ballinamore, in what was David Kelly's first time visiting the site where his father lost his life 38 years ago to this day (December 16).

"For me, it's so strange to be here. This place is seared in my memory," David said in the documentary.

"I have thought about Derrada Wood for many years, how it affected my mother, how grief-stricken she was. She lost her happiness. Happiness in our family went out the window."

He also read out part of a letter which Pte Kelly, a 36-year-old father of four, had written shortly before he was killed.

"It's a letter my father wrote only a week before he was killed in Derrada Wood. It's a letter he sent to his own brother, who was serving in Lebanon at the time," explained David.

"One section of the letter says, 'There was a lad kidnapped ten days ago and we are looking for him, and no trace of him. So I'd say we'll be doing lots of duty over the Christmas.'

"It just captures that moment in time just before he was sent up to Ballinamore."

PJ Higgins, a retired Sergeant Major who was part of the search team during the tragic incident, said he had known Pte Kelly for a number of years because they both lived in the Moate area.

"The guy was an absolute gentleman. He was everything that you would want your son or daughter to be," said Sgt Major (Retd) Higgins.

He said the soldiers who had left Athlone to take part in the search for Don Tidey towards the end of 1983 had been naive about the risks they were facing.

"I think it's fair to say that as we left (Custume Barracks) that Monday morning, none of us would ever have believed that we would bury one of our own the following Monday.

"We always felt we were safe. Foolishly, we felt that they wouldn't have killed a soldier."

He said the Defence Forces had not been properly equipped or trained to carry out the search for a man who was being held captive by an armed and well-organised IRA unit in unforgiving conditions in the Leitrim woods.

"(The IRA) were prepared, they were trained, they had exit routes, and they were prepared to kill. We came up here prepared to search," he said.

"As a military man, although I hate what they did, I admire their planning and preparation, because it was second-to-none."

David Kelly outlined the details of his father's death after he was shot several times. "My father received multiple bullet wounds from his ankles all the way up to his head.

"I was later told that my father didn't die straight away, and his colleagues could actually hear him in pain as he basically slowly bled to death in the wood that day, which was very difficult to hear."

The film showed the 2011 encounter between David and the late Martin McGuinness in Athlone, in which the former IRA member denied that he had information about the identity of Pte Kelly's killers.

There is currently no indication that there will be any forthcoming prosecutions in relation to the matter.

"You'd imagine that after 40 years we'd have some finality to all this, but out there, walking free and easy, are the people who killed Paddy Kelly.

"We, as a nation, have not done anything to correct that situation. That to me is hard," said Sgt Major (Retd) Higgins.

Brendan O'Brien, a journalist who covered the incident for RTE, said he suspected that those responsible for the kidnapping and its aftermath would not face trial.

He said the killings, and the outpouring of public sympathy which followed, had, "in a grotesque kind way" helped move the peace process forward in the 1980s and 1990s.

* At the time of writing, the episode of The Case I Can't Forget about the kidnapping of Don Tidey and the murders of Patrick Kelly and Gary Sheehan was still available for viewing on the RTE Player here.