Joseph (Joe) Grogan, who owned more than 200 acres of good land at Screggan, Co Offaly, wasn’t that fond of farming.
His cousin, Sean Grogan, spoke to reporters outside Tullamore Courthouse on Tuesday, when the inquest into Joe’s death had just concluded.
“Basically, he was fond of machinery and all the vintage tractors that he had,” said Sean, who had given evidence to the inquest.
“Joe was a very… he never married. Sorry, he did marry, the day before he died,” he said.
RM Block
The slip was telling. Joe Grogan’s marriage to Lisa Flaherty, on April 14th, 2023, the day before Joe died, hung over the three-day inquest.
The coroner, Raymond Mahon, refused requests from lawyers representing members of the Grogan family to refer Joe’s “suspicious death” to the Garda, instead of making a finding.
Damien Tansey SC, for four members of the family, including Sean Grogan, said Ms Flaherty, who stands to inherit his estate, “had motive”. Joe Grogan had no children.
Sean Grogan lives in Naas, Co Kildare. Another cousin, Padraig Grogan, also a farmer in Screggan, Co Offaly, told Mr Tansey he visited Joe regularly over the years.
Padraig was the only member of the once-large Grogan family who remained in the locality. He often discussed farming with Joe, an only surviving child who inherited his farm from his father.
Joe’s farm, of about 230 acres, had been valued at approximately €5.5 million, Padraig told Mr Tansey. That was after some of the land had been compulsorily acquired for the Tullamore Ring Road, with approximately €800,000 being paid to Joe in compensation.
Decades previously, the inquest was told, several sites were compulsorily acquired from Joe’s grandfather, and cottages were built by the council.
One of these was Ms Flaherty’s “ancestral home”, Mr Tansey said. A woman Joe had a relationship with for more than 20 years came from another of the cottages.
Joe Grogan was diagnosed with Stage IV Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, in January 2023, and began treatment at the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore.
When he visited him in February 2023, Padraig said, his cousin was “in terrible form”, stressed, and complaining that he could not eat.
Joe was losing weight, something often associated with being on chemotherapy. Having been more than 12 stone in June 2022, he was almost four stone lighter by April 2023. Twice during chemotherapy, he was treated in hospital for an infection.
However, oncologist Dr Kanthi Perera told the inquest that Joe was responding well to treatment and was due to be assessed for a further cycle of chemotherapy before his death. She was “surprised” when she heard he had died.
Several witnesses, including Dr Perera, testified that although the prognosis for Joe was good, he himself was very negative. “I knew the treatment was working for Joe, but he didn’t accept it,” Ms Flaherty said.
Joe received his final dose of chemotherapy on April 5th, 2023. It was the last time he was seen by a doctor.
Mary Coyne, a lifelong friend of Ms Flaherty’s and a friend of Joe’s, told the inquest she visited him “every second day” in the first weeks of April. He was getting “frailer by the day”.
A healthcare worker in the oncology department in Tullamore, she visited him on the morning of April 15th when Joe, speaking in a weak voice, said: “We have news. We got married yesterday.”
Apart from Ms Flaherty, no witness at the inquest said they had known of the registry office marriage prior to Joe’s death at the age of 75.
Ms Flaherty told the inquest she was born in 1974, worked part time as a special needs assistant, and had three children. Joe was not their father.
She told the inquest she had been in a relationship with Joe for more than 16 years, and they had known each other since she was a teenager.
She would stay in a spare room in Joe’s house, she said, but she had a house elsewhere, the address of which was used on the marriage certificate.
She was questioned by Mr Tansey about her other relationships. When the barrister asked whether her relationship with the deceased had ever been consummated, the coroner said he would not allow the question.
Ms Flaherty left the court and returned afterwards in tears, when Mr Tansey remarked that “endless anxiety” had been caused to the Grogan family by the suggestion that Ms Flaherty’s relationship with Joe dated back to when she was aged 16.
“It puts Joe Grogan into the realm of a paedophile,” Mr Tansey said, prompting criticism from the coroner.
It was not the only time Ms Flaherty started to cry, or held her head resting in one hand. Both families had relatives and supporters in court for the inquest.
Mr Tansey indicated that the Grogan family was contemplating a legal challenge to the “validity” of Ms Flaherty’s marriage to Joe Grogan. Mr Mahon ruled that the issue was not one for the inquest. Stephen J Byrne, barrister for Ms Flaherty, produced a copy of the marriage certificate.
An ambulance had been called on the morning of Joe’s death. Paramedic Aidan Dignam told the inquest he explained to Joe that he should go to hospital, but Joe did not wish to.
Niamh Higgins, Ms Flaherty’s sister and a nurse, told the inquest she visited Joe that afternoon, having been contacted by her mother.
Joe, she said, appeared comfortable but was “actively dying”. There were others present, but no member of the Grogan family.
Ms Higgins told Peter Jones, solicitor for Joe’s aunt, Teresa Mooney, that she, Ms Higgins, was not asked by her sister about Joe’s health in the period from April 5th to April 14th.
Martin Keyes, a full-time truck driver and part-time undertaker, gave evidence of being called by Ms Flaherty and told Joe Grogan had died.
He arrived at the house at about 5pm and while there suggested to Ms Flaherty that Joe be embalmed. She agreed, he said, and he contacted Shepherds Mortuary in Longford and was told they could embalm the body at about 8pm. After the body was embalmed, it was returned to Screggan.
”Joe did not want to be on a slab overnight in a church, mortuary or morgue,” Ms Flaherty said.
The burial was to take place the following day, but the coroner contacted the Garda and asked for the body to be repossessed for a postmortem. Among the issues explored at the inquest was how Joe’s body had been taken to be embalmed without the requisite release from a doctor.
The pathologist who carried out the postmortem, Dr Charles d’Aldhemar, told the inquest he could identify no clear cause of death because of the embalming.
In his submission at the end of the evidence, Mr Jones said Joe was “basically left to die” and that, if he had been suffering from an infection, “no-one called the doctor”.
Both Mr Jones and Mr Tansey urged the coroner to call for Joe’s death to be investigated by the Garda.
Ms Flaherty’s barrister, Mr Byrne, said he was concerned the inquest was being used to “attack the good name of Lisa Flaherty”. He said gardaí, if they wanted to investigate Joe’s death, would have applied for the inquest to be adjourned.
The evidence was that Joe had full capacity when he married Lisa Flaherty, he said. The paramedic had given evidence as to Joe’s capacity. “Is he part of the conspiracy too?”
Mr Tansey, in his submission, said Ms Flaherty “stands to gain an estate with a value of €5.5 million on the basis that she is the widow of Joseph Grogan”.
The coroner delivered a “narrative verdict”, which is an account of the circumstances surrounding a death rather than a direct ruling as to its cause.
While Dr d’Aldhemar could not give a cause of death, the coroner said, it was probably due to an infection associated with his cancer, chemotherapy treatment, damage to the immune system, and significant weight loss.
There had been “valid criticism” of Joe’s care, he said, but it had to be borne in mind that Joe did not want to go to hospital.
The evidence did not come “anywhere near” the threshold required for a finding of unlawful killing, the coroner said.
