The death of a Drogheda man following a road traffic accident 33 years ago, in which a current Fine Gael councillor was also involved, has been referred to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC).
The circumstances of the accident on September 30th, 1981, have also been taken up by a new independent Department of Justice review panel that considers allegations of garda misconduct or inadequacies.
Patrick O'Rourke (19) was going to work at Drogheda Dairies with his uncle at about 6am when the car in which they were travelling collided with a car being driven by then garda Richie Culhane. Mr O'Rourke died of his injuries at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, on October 5th.
Mr Culhane is now retired from the force and is a Fine Gael member of Louth County Council. There was no prosecution after the accident.
Mr O’Rourke’s sister Geraldine O’Rourke, who was seven years old at the time, has been seeking information about what happened in the incident. However, none of the files relating to her brother’s death – from the local Garda station or the hospital where he died – can be located.
Canvassing
She says she began her search for answers after Mr Culhane came canvassing at her door in the recent local elections. She says the death of her brother, who was the second of nine children born to parents Tony and Betty, “destroyed” the family.
“Everything just stopped. There was no joy in our home after. My mother especially, it broke her heart. She never got over it. It didn’t get easier for her, it got harder. She talked about him every day and she died nine years after. She was 55. I think she was hanging on just long enough to know we were old enough to mind ourselves, and then she wanted to go and be with him. “My father died six years after that. He was 57. When he was dying he said he wasn’t afraid and I think he wanted to go too.”
After the local elections, she decided it was “time now to find out what happened”. She wants to know if an investigation had taken place and, if one had, what form it took.
She wrote to gardaí in Drogheda seeking the Garda file from the case. On October 20th they wrote back to her, telling her “following a search at Drogheda Garda station no documents in relation to the investigation of your brother’s death can be found”.
Medical record
She also applied under the Freedom of Information Act for her brother’s file from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. On October 13th, Margaret Swords, group general manager from Louth-Meath hospitals, wrote to her saying: “I regret to inform you that following exhaustive searches your late brother’s medical record chart has not been located.”
Ms O’Rourke said, “It’s as if he meant nothing to no one, only his family.”
She has also written to Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald.
In a letter from the Taoiseach’s office, dated August 12th, she was told her brother’s case had been referred by Ms Fitzgerald to a “new independent review mechanism” to determine what further action may be taken.
GSOC wrote to her last week, telling her that the commission would be investigating the case.
Ms O’Rourke said her family’s search for answers was not politically motivated. “We just want to know what happened, that’s all. We have never had closure on this,” she said.
Mr Culhane, when contacted by The Irish Times, declined to comment.
