An independent nationalist councillor for Omagh who was passionate about civil rights, Patsy Kelly locked up the pub in the early hours of July 24th, 1974, and was driving home when abducted on a nearby road. A crucifix and memorial plaque now mark the spot where his hair, blood and shirt buttons were found.
“I went out to close our gates after midnight and I often do think to myself, ‘I wonder did the car go past with his body in it at the time?’ I always worried that it wasn’t safe for him driving home at night as he carried the box of money from the bar. He’d say, ‘don’t you worry, the only people I’ll stop for are the men in uniform and not for anybody else. I’ll only be stopping when I see a security forces’ red light at a checkpoint’.
With his hand resting on the 134-page report on an armchair beside his mother, Patsy Kelly says his father was a “decent man” who respected “those in uniform. I may not have met my father but his presence has always been there. This report shows it was uniforms ‘plural’ — in terms of the uniforms of the British army and the RUC — that have let us down.”Teresa Kelly remembers her initial faith in the police investigation, despite an encounter with the first policeman who came to their door.
“Local people were taking time off work, going days without pay to look for him. There was so much energy put into finding him, that the locals guarded his body overnight at the chapel before the funeral.”“Well, I had two choices, either I could lie on in bed and not get up and not face the world or I could get up and face the world and keep going.
Holding up a copy of the report, he adds: “So Pat Fahy’s fingerprints are on this. It became a personal crusade.”