This article is from page 14 of the 2006-04-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
IT was a relationship breakdown that, sadly, ended up in the public domain, through two court cases.
Pat Keating and Eavan Drysdale first met, when she reported a stolen bicycle at Shannon Garda Station, on June 21, 2003. Hours later they bumped into each other in Tesco in Shannon. Later again that day, according to Keating, Eavan Drysdale rang him at work and asked him out.
The couple enjoyed many happy times together during the following nine months, but two incidents in particular led to their private lives becoming very public.
An incident between the two in the carpark of the Shannon Knights in March 2004 led to Keating being charged with an offence under the Public Order Act – a relatively minor offence which would be dealt with in the District Court. But matters were to take a more serious twist when Eavan Drysdale alleged that Keating had threatened her in August 2004.
She claimed comments he made to her over the phone in the early hours of August 18, 2004, led her to fear for her life.
Keating went on trial, accused of threatening the mother-of-two, at Ennis Circuit Court in February. After hearing evidence over four days, the jury took less than an hour to decide that Keating was not guilty.
He was subsequently reinstated to his position at Shannon Garda Station, following a 19 month suspension. However his role was officebased, pending the outcome of last Thursday’s District Court hearing.
Last week’s dismissal of the charge should pave the way for his return to full duties.
But while the curtain has been drawn on the court cases, the relationship enjoyed by two individuals has now become a matter of public discussion. Personal matters between the two were heard during the Circuit Court case, and during a 78-minute District Court hearing last week.
Details of hundreds of text messages and several phone calls between the pair were heard by a jury in the Circuit Court case.
Pat Keating and Eavan Drysdale gave somewhat contrasting descriptions of many aspects of their time together. Keating told the Circuit Court case that Eavan Drysdale gave him a key to her house just three weeks after they first met and that he could “come and go as I wished and could class myself as part of the family.”
But Eavan Drysdale disagreed with this. She told the District Court last week that while Keating had a key, he was not living in her house.
“Pat Keating told lies up here three weeks ago. I am telling the truth . . . I was not living with Pat Keating,” she told the court, adding that Pat Keating was “very persistent.”
The strain was very much in evi dence at last week’s court sitting, as Ms Drysdale wept openly in court.
“I’m sorry, just I’ve been through so much in the last three weeks, with the other case,” she explained to Judge Joseph Mangan, after breaking down in tears.
During his evidence in the Circuit Court, Keating said regardless of what happened in any court, his life was shattered and his career was in ruins.