The Killing of Fr Niall Molloy

I love how people rush to judgement minutes after a TV show like this starts to air 🙄

I only knew the broad outline of the story so I learned some new things tonight. It looks like they are holding off the good stuff until next week. So far, it's starting to look very like the Flynns had the money and influence to be able to avoid justice.

No, it's too long ago at this stage and most if not all of the main players are now dead. But if the Flynns were able to bypass the justice system in the way they seem to have, it'd make you wonder who else has pulled the same stunt?

Looks like financial dealings was the root cause of the disturbance at the house that night.

I haven't watched it yet, but there was a Today Tonight special in 1987 that went into the incident in great detail, as well as the goings on during the court case and how the judge behaved. This was on prime time TV just two years after the murder when the suspect was still alive, yet still nothing happened regarding a new investigation.

It looks like the Flynn’s weren’t the only people in the house when fr Molloy was killed, a doctor from kilbeggan was called even though there was a doctor in Clara, was the Clara doctor already in attendance?

the statement made my Flynn’s son would allude to the fact that it wasn’t his father who killed Molloy and possibly wasn’t any of the Flynn’s at all

It seems the priest was killed some time before the strange sequence of how they got outside help- from memory someone drove past a nearer doctor to get a doctor further away. The parish priest was at the Flynns' residence but didn't make certain calls for help as he didn't have his glasses and then went home to get the glasses but didn't then make those calls, for help, as he assumed someone at the Flynns' house had now done it. A very bizarre time line across the board which can not be true and many of us would assume allowed them some time to get a plan in place. Richard Flynn had a bruised hand. His story of striking his wife and the priest was therefore partly true. Multiple reports over the years say that Richard Flynn was not thought in the area to be the murderer. The same reports tend to suggest that the murderer was still alive after the death of Therese Flynn in the 1990s. I have no sense from the TV as to how tall or robust a woman Therese Flynn was but intuitively feel that a man killed Niall Molloy. So 36 years later it seems unlikely we will ever know the truth but the following scenario generally works for me. There was a row between Niall Molloy and the Flynns- take your choice it was either to do with the £12,000 the priest wanted back or because Therese Flynn was sleeping with Niall Molloy or indeed perhaps both. 1 of the 3 of them struck someone first and a scuffle started. A younger male person over heard this/ walked in to the start of it and then went to the aid of the Flynns and for whatever reason perhaps they were drunk, perhaps there were other reasons, battered Niall Molloy with very considerable force.

They had made their choices as to who they called/ didn't call and when. The local priest who is now deceased was presumably sympathetic to perhaps his richest parishioner. The culture of the time seemed to favour keeping things quiet/ not causing a scandal. Therese Flynn may have thrown a punch or pushed someone but my sense of it is the bulk of the fighting was done by Richard Flynn and likely another male where that male would have very much wished to go to the aid of the Flynns. Best recall is Dominic McGlinn S.C's report 6/7 years ago said there were no records available from Tullamore hospital as to any injuries she may have had. I think we were told last night that Niall Molloy had no defensive wounds so he probably didn't punch anyone but may have in a row got up too close to Richard or Therese Flynn and/or pushed one of them. The murderer if one believes the multiple reports over the years (that it was not Richard Flynn) is still as far as we know alive and perhaps 55-60 years old.

His wife was Therese Flynn's sister in law ? There are likely several people alive between the age of c55-65 who you would have thought know what happened that night but they decided to protect one of their number.

As time goes by the chances of a conviction gets exponentially smaller. Same with Sophie case too. Neither will ever be solved.

Admitting to killing someone is not an admission of murder.

Pretty sure R Flynn moved to Moate and re-married. His first wife's sister was married to a county surgeon. His first wife was from Galway. She died I believe circa 1991.

Just watched the documentary on the RTE player. A number of observations

1. Flynn's explanation of a row over getting a drink seems tosh.
2. Why was the coroner's inquest held after the criminal trial.
3. Flynn's son seemed to intimate that the truth couldn't be spoken.
4. Is Theresa's Flynn's amnesia plausible?
5. I would question her amnesia considering she tried to fraudulently cash in an insurance policy of Fr Molloy some years later.
6. Flynn died in 2017 and based on him being 47 in 1986 that put him at 78/79 when he did die.

It was heartbreaking seeing the hurt on the faces of the relatives of Fr Molloy. Justice Roe did his profession a grave disservice in taking the case. He was friends with the Flynn's and should have stepped aside. I find it inconceivable that a member of the Flynn family isn't in a position to give a definitive account of what happened to Fr Molloy. Justice seems unlikely now but the truth can always come out. They owe it to the family of Fr Molloy.

Sounds like these reports are stating that Flynn’s son was the killer?

Even accounting for the dubious timelines (claimed assault time vs. actual time) David Flynn would have one of the better alibis - in White's pub until closing time and then hosting the younger family members in his house 3 miles away for sandwiches afterwards.

I need to rewatch the Today Tonight show but does it not menion that one of the Flynn's daughters or daughters-in-law said, at the inquest, they were in the pub until about midnight but the pub in fact closed at about 10pm. There is also a conflict in evidence between when they got to the pub- Flynn family say about 930pm independent witnesses say 9pm.

The entire time line as presented by Flynn family was inaccurate and likely deliberately inaccurate. The one part of the evening that is most accurate is that Father Molloy was in the car with the Flynns on the way back to Kilcoursey House after they left their mutual friends the Goodbodys. They pass most of the younger member of the Flynn family going to the pub- the Goodbodys (I think) say the Flynns left at 9pm or 920pm. Kilcoursey to the Goodbodys is apparently no more than 5 minutes in a car. An 'Auntie May' lived in Kilcoursey- perhaps Richard or Therese's aunt and the children's Great-Aunt ? A Flynn daughter and daughter-in-law stayed with Auntie May whilst Richard, Therese and Fr Molloy were out visiting. The two younger women then go down to the pub and catch up with the group. At that point perhaps one of the younger crowd in the pub says I'm just going back to talk to Richard and/or Therese and/ or Fr Niall.

Indeed. As I follow the Today Tonight programme that's exactly what happened. My take on what the show says is that a man who was not in their group but had been at the wedding saw them in the pub at 9pm. They claim to have got to the pub at 945pm and left after midnight. Today Tonight explicitly says the pub closed at 10 that night. The relevant part is about 24 minutes after beginning of  the program.

Closing time was 10pm on Sunday's in those days. Of course they could have stayed longer.

That was when we had real public service broadcasting and the presenters were not the star's

We were moving from electro/ mechanical to digital exchanges at the time. I think the last actual manual exchange did not close until late 1980's. I think you had to opt in for detailed bills showing all calls and there was a charge when it came in. Clara would have been a small sub telephone exchange so it would depend on the technology available in it at the time.

While the end user may not been able to see the itemised bill, the exchange itself would have had some logging mechanism?

If I'm correct, the 05 area has it master hub in Waterford, but houses in Clara were connected to the Portlaoise exchange.

It would depend on whether Clara was digital at the time or electro mechanical. If electro mechanical there is no hope detailed billing was available.