A shift in mood is taking place in Kenmare. When Defence Forces vehicles full of soldiers rolled into the picturesque Kerry town to join the search on Tuesday, the shock felt by locals in the wake of Michael Gaine’s disappearance was giving way to an air of sober resignation.
“It might have been April Fool’s, but there’s nobody joking in this town,” said local councillor Dan McCarthy, sitting in the canteen of the cattle mart he manages.
“There’s a slumber and a cloud hanging over and everyone is just hoping he’ll be found, but it’s going on two weeks now,” he said, shaking his head.
“‘Tis worrying, ‘tis seriously worrying.”
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On the table in front of the Independent councillor lie several open packets of biscuits for the farmers stopping in for a natter. Gaine, better known as Mike around town, used to call here several times a week for the tea, banter and animal sales.
McCarthy is particularly close to Mike; the missing sheep farmer also stopped at his garage most mornings for a cup of tea and a chat, before heading off to tend to his animals.
Today, as for the last two weeks, the councillor’s premises have taken on a new, heavier energy.
Gaine was last seen on Thursday, March 20th. Gardaí released a CCTV image of the farmer buying phone credit in a Centra store at 9.48am that day.
In what is believed to be the last confirmed sighting of him, the farmer was spotted later in the town and appears to have driven back to his home outside the town, off the N71 at Carrig East, before disappearing. His 2015 car – a bronze-coloured Toyota Rav4 – was left in his farmyard, but there has been no trace of him despite extensive searches of his farm and nearby lands.
Gardaí say they are no closer to establishing what happened to Gaine than they were a week ago.
They stressed that the investigation remains a missing person inquiry rather than a murder investigation but conceded that there is little chance that Gaine might be found alive at this stage.
As is often the case in high-profile investigations, the local community is awash with rumour. One circulating locally was that Gaine withdrew a five-figure sum in cash shortly before his disappearance.
Gardaí said the farmer mostly dealt in cash and was known to withdraw relatively large sums from time to time. However, his most recent withdrawal was far less than the figure rumoured locally.
On Tuesday, 50 soldiers from the 3rd and 12th Battalions of 1 Brigade joined the search effort. McCarthy said that it was a sign that authorities were “upping the ante”, but that it was looking like an increasingly “desperate” endeavour.
The introduction of soldiers is the latest phase in the multi-agency search effort, which began on March 21st and encompassed the Garda, Kerry Mountain Rescue, Civil Defence and Kerry Fire Service, among other groups.
Hundreds of volunteers from the local area were also combing the rough terrain last week, although gardaí are no longer requesting the public’s assistance in the effort to locate the 56-year-old.
On Friday, the search for Mr Gaine resulted in the discovery of a makeshift camp in a remote location on his farm, where a number of items were found. These included weapons, food and clothes. The items have been taken for testing by gardaí in a bid to ascertain if they have any evidential value and are in any way linked to the disappearance.
Gardaí believe a person was effectively living off the land in the area for a period and was using the camp as a base. They have identified that person and he has been spoken to by investigators as one of many witnesses in the case.
However, sources stressed no direct link had been found between the discovery of the camp and weapons, including an axe a crossbow, and his disappearance.
The gregarious Gaine was a frequent face in many of Kenmare’s shops and pubs.
Maurice Moroney, owner of the Horseshoe pub on the main street, said he was a “pure gentleman” that would “keep you chatting for hours”.
He said the mood around town was “deepening into sadness”, adding: “You don’t want to expect the expected, you know. We still hope to find him alive somewhere. [He was] the most generous man you could meet. He loved the area, loved the people and loved his animals.”
Other locals shared similar sentiments but were clear-eyed about the length of time that has passed.
Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae said: “People were hoping the first few days for a breakthrough, that something would [happen], but unfortunately the more time goes, isn’t that the more you despair.”
He said the search would go on, despite the fact that every avenue so far had failed.
“It’s like any job, when things go wrong and you’re stuck, you need to look for more help,” he said.
When asked about the 50 soldiers allocated to the search of the thousand-acre farmland this week, Healy-Rae felt the contribution was on the small side.
“I have to be honest. I would have been a lot happier if it was 500 people [from the Defence Forces],” he said.
“I’d really like to see more resources from the Army being sent in because they have a great degree of skill and expertise in search and rescue and travelling bad terrain.”
A source familiar with search-and-rescue operations said search crews numbering several hundred people are far more challenging to organise and co-ordinate than smaller groupings, adding that they believed that 50 soldiers was the correct number from an operational point of view.
Former detective Pat Marry, who was instrumental in solving many Irish murder cases, said the Defence Forces were an invaluable asset to him during many Garda operations in the past, particularly when covering large areas of ground.
“I did it with [missing person] Ciara Breen’s [case], I looked for the Army to help us out because we had such an area to cover and they were able to supply manpower,” he said.
“And I asked for them when Joe Biden was over as vice-president. We had a huge area of road to search and manholes to be looked into and marked, and the Army were just absolutely brilliant. They got through the work efficiently, and their management structure is second to none.”
Marry added that the engineering division of the force is particularly useful during a search, as they are experienced in planning and dividing work, and can allocate equipment and personnel effectively.
However, despite the efforts of soldiers and other parties, he agreed that the likelihood was they were now looking for a body. He said there was an increasingly “ominous” feel during searches as the days wore on.
That thought is one shared by residents across this idyllic part of Kerry. But their singular focus now is on giving Mike Gaine’s family and friends some sort of closure, whatever form that may take.
