When a person goes missing in Ireland, it’s become routine to see many posters of that person displayed within the area where they were last seen. That’s not the case with Kerry farmer Michael Gaine (56), who was last seen on March 20th; a disappearance described at the time by all who knew him as completely out of character. I didn’t see a single poster with his image anywhere in Kenmare this week; the town closest to the 400-hectare (1,000-acre) property he farmed a few kilometres away. His disappearance became a national story almost immediately, and his image widely circulated within the media.
“The town is talking about nothing else ever since,” says one stallholder at the market on Wednesday morning, held around the perimeter of Kenmare’s triangular green space (referred to by locals as The Square). Like several others interviewed for this piece, she declined to give her name. In a small town, everything quoted publicly clearly has the potential to be personal; to unintentionally offend or upset already distressed family members. “Mystery” is the word that repeats like a mantra.
Michael Gaine, known as Mike, is a long-time sheep and beef farmer. He was definitively last seen at 9.48am on Thursday March 20th, standing waiting in Whyte’s Centra on the Killarney road, to pay for credit for his phone. In the CCTV image released by the gardaí, he is standing beside the shop’s circular stand of ice cream sprinkle toppings. He has a bushy white beard, and is wearing an orange beanie hat, jeans, black boots and a black fleece.
After this, he got into his bronze-coloured Toyota Rav4, registration 152 KY 366, and drove away. The alarm was raised the following day, March 21st, by his wife Janice: the family home is in a different location. Not long after, Gaine’s empty jeep was found parked beside his farm buildings which are located a few kilometres along the N71.
I drove out from Kenmare along this road. On my way out, a Garda van passed me, heading back towards the town. A second Garda vehicle was stationed at an entrance road to the farmland: there has been a Garda presence there for weeks now. Located down a slope on the left, the cluster of buildings are clearly visible from the road. The N71 is a busy road, and there are several houses along the route between Kenmare and Gaine’s land.
Gaine’s wallet and phone were found in his vehicle, which was parked up directly in front of a particular building, as if he had been going to check on the animals inside. One person in Kenmare who knows Gaine told me that this phone, which he had frequently had sight of, was not a smartphone, but a basic model he bought credit for in person, and did not top up online. This person had never heard him mention having an email address. “He was old-fashioned that way.”
In RTÉ’s Prime Time report three weeks after Gaine went missing, it was mentioned that a roll he had bought in the Centra deli was also found, uneaten, in the bronze-coloured 4x4.
A large-scale search for Gaine commenced almost immediately after the alarm was raised, initially led by about 200 local volunteers. Teddy O’Sullivan was one of them. O’Sullivan is a local Fine Gael councillor and a caretaker in Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine. “The first weekend, we were all up there. We were hoping we’d find him stuck in a drain or something, but unfortunately, that was not the case. After that, all the resources were very quick on the scene, the Army and all.” Despite an extensive search, no trace of Gaine has been found. “It’s brutal cruel for the family, and for the community as a whole,” says O’Sullivan.
“I was very surprised by the scale and speed of the search,” one business owner in the town said, who did not want to give his name. “Is it normal for the Army to send in so many people so early on when someone goes missing? People go missing all the time, and they don’t usually get that kind of attention from the authorities. That raised some questions. There were sniffer dogs, drones, a helicopter, the mountain rescue people. To me, anyway, it seemed an out-of-the-ordinary response.”
Along with local volunteers, a considerable number of members of the Defence Forces, the Civil Defence, the Irish Coast Guard, Kerry Mountain Rescue, dog units, the fire service and the Garda water unit took part in the search. Drones were also deployed.
In the course of the search, a rough camp was discovered on the land. Among other items, an axe, a bow and arrow, food and clothes were found there, and have been taken away for examination.
Several people in Kenmare told me that Gaine had some difficulty with mobility: in recent times, he had been complaining about pain in his knees. For this reason, he was not a man known for lengthy walks or hikes of any kind. On his extensive land, he used either his 4x4 or a quad bike to get around. This bike was out of action at the time of his disappearance.
Flor O’Brien, a hay and straw dealer, last saw his friend Gaine at about 7.40am on the morning of March 20th, and is thus one of the last known people to have seen him. Gaine regularly bought hay and straw from O’Brien. They ran into each other at Dan McCarthy’s garage in the town, where farmers routinely call to buy feed or some of the basic groceries in the shop. “We had a cup of tea together.”
O’Brien’s farming-focused mind puzzles about why Gaine would voluntarily leave his farm without first making provision for feeding his stock. “If he went away, say on holidays, he’d always get his cattle looked after; get the feed sorted out. Cattle need to be fed every day.” It was coming up on lambing season at that time, so sheep also needed to be regularly fed.
O’Brien is reluctant to offer any theories on what might have happened Gaine, other than if harm of any kind had befallen him on his land, he would inevitably have been found by now, such was the scale and thoroughness of the search. “It’s all very strange. Someone has to know something. And if anyone does know something, they should come forward.”
Over their cup of tea, had Gaine mentioned he was meeting anyone later?
“He never mentioned anything to me about anyone meeting him,” O’Brien says.
“There’s no logic to what happened,” a friend of Gaine’s tells me. “Was it maybe a case of mistaken identity? I just don’t know.”
Mike Gaine: What we do know
Mike Gaine’s Toyota Rav4 was found on Friday March 21st at his farm outbuildings. To get there, it must have been driven by Gaine, or by someone else. There is no report of any sighting of Gaine in the vehicle that morning with another person. When Gaine got out of the Toyota, his knee troubles would have precluded him from any lengthy journey by foot on his land, land which has by now been exhaustively searched. His quad bike was not working, so he could not have used that.
Gaine went somewhere, by some method, that day when he left behind his phone and wallet. Whether a smartphone or a basic phone, a mobile is something that people have become accustomed to having on them at all times.
His unexplained disappearance continues to be the focus of a Garda investigation, described by Supt Dave O’Callaghan as “the largest search conducted in Kerry in recent times”.
The Roughty Pub on Kenmare’s Main Street, where a bright fire burns in a stove, is Gaine’s local. According to fellow regular, Adam Murphy, who was there when I called in, his drink of choice is Heineken. “He usually sits there,” Murphy said, indicating an empty spot at the far right end of the counter. “We just don’t know where he is.”
An Garda Síochána continues to appeal to anyone who may have any information on Michael Gaine’s whereabouts to contact Killarney Garda station on 064 667 1160, the Garda confidential line, 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.
