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	Murder Case Gardai Hit a Berlin-like Wall of Silence By Pj Browne Herald December 3, 2009 http://www.herald.ie/national-news/murder-case-gardai-hit-a-berlinlike-wall-of-silence-1962848.html WHEN I, with others, joined the Garda Siochana's "Murder Squad" in 1980 the boss was Detective Chief Superintendent Dan Murphy, and his deputy was Detective Superintendent John Courtney. Both were vastly experienced investigators and longtime members of the squad. One case that was always on the lips of Dan Murphy was the death of Bernadette Connolly in Co Sligo on that miserable spring day of Friday, April 17, 1970. I heard him speak about it many, many times, and that was more than 10 years since the young girl's death. Forty years have now passed but very important questions remain unanswered. To bring that date to your mind, it was the evening that everybody was glued to the television awaiting the return of Apollo 13 to splash down in the Pacific Ocean. The events of the day and Bernadette's disappearance are well documented. The gardai were notified and a search was initiated. But resources were stretched tight. The murder squad itself has to be split into a second team to be dispatched to Co Sligo. That was because investigations were ongoing into other cases, one of which was the murder of a garda, Dick Fallon, at Arran Quay in Dublin. Bernadette's body was not found until August 4, almost four months later. During the course of the investigation, information was received about a green van and its registration. Crucially, it was established that the van belonged to the Passionist priest who was based at a monastery in the locality. When gardai tried to investigate, a wall of silence prevailed and no one would admit who was using the van between 4.30pm and 7.30pm on the day that Bernadette disappeared. That wall of silence was more difficult to break down than the Berlin Wall and still to this day has not been penetrated. Equally worrying are the reports that emerged that the garda file on the matter had been shown to a member of the church hierarchy. This was a most grievous breach of process and merits investigation in itself. The same garda-church collusion was writ large in last week's Murphy Report on abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese and now we have another, possibly even more serious instance of it. As Gerry Ryan has pointed out, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy needs to investigate this matter. Separately the Cold Case Unit should revisit this case itself, as some of the Connolly family are still alive and mourn their loss. Dan Murphy died in 1984 with his wish and hope to solve the Connolly case unfulfilled. People who know what happened may well be still alive. They have a moral duty to contact gardai, to make known any information they have. For the record, it should be stated that there have been and still are good priests in the Passionist community.
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