‘He had the most wonderful laugh’
The brother of a young man who was killed near a Cork city nightclub is still fighting for answers as the tragedy reaches its 25th anniversary.
Alan Moynihan’s brother Adrian was killed on 26 March 2001, Mother’s Day, during an infamous incident at the Sidetrax nightclub on Grafton St off Oliver Plunkett St.
Adrian was 23 years old. Tomorrow, Friday, would have been his 48th birthday.
Despite CCTV footage of the incident, an inquest in 2003 resulted in a verdict of death by misadventure, finding that Adrian had died of asphyxiation arising from the manner in which he was restrained at the club.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) concluded that nobody would be prosecuted for Adrian’s death.
Today, Alan Moynihan and his family hold fond memories of their lost brother and son close to their hearts but have struggled to find peace in the 25 years since his death.
“Everybody had good time for Adrian,” recalled Alan.
“He was a great friend, and he had a huge circle of friends.
“He was almost a minder and a protector to a lot of them,” his brother told The Cork Independent.
“People came back to us and said they went through hard times growing up and Adrian was always there for them. You get great comfort in hearing things like that.
“He had the most wonderful laugh and he had just a lovely way about him. He enjoyed life, you know, he enjoyed it to the full,” said Alan.
In the years since Adrian’s death, Alan and his parents have never stopped looking for answers from the state and to this day do not know why the DPP decided not to prosecute. With each new government entering the Dáil, they have renewed their appeal for the case to be reviewed, but to no avail. In 2024, Alan wrote a letter to then Taoiseach Simon Harris following Mr Harris’ official apology to the families of the 48 victims who died in the Stardust nightclub fire in 1981.
Alan said: “I presume we’ve all had moments of peace along the journey, but it’s been spoiled and marred by the unanswered questions and by the negative responses we get from various government departments, how they send us from pillar to post and back around in a full circle.
“We’ve met nothing but hardship trying to get our case heard.
“When Adrian was killed in 2001, Enda Kenny was in opposition, and he screamed the Dáil down looking for justice for Adrian. Two years later he got into office, and we asked him to help us, and he said he couldn’t do anything.”
To highlight the case in 2004, Adrian’s father Andrew went on hunger strike outside the Dáil.
A song for Adrian
In a solemn tribute marking the 25th anniversary of Adrian’s death, Cork musician and activist Martin Leahy has released a song called ‘The Death of Adrian Moynihan’, telling of the events of 26 March 2001.
The track, which he began writing 15 years ago, is the first song the former session musician ever fully wrote and has taken him all these years to perfect.
He said: “I suppose I’m just like everybody else, I just heard about it when it happened.
“I remember seeing the footage on the news or maybe a political programme or something at the time, and I remember being kind of perplexed as to why this was still going on because it felt so obvious.
“All the kind of mainstream papers at the time were calling it a murder hunt. It has always been on my mind,” added Martin.
His song stands as a firm reminder that Cork remembers the name Adrian Moynihan, and as a tribute to Adrian’s family, who Martin says he is in awe of.
He continued: “It’s unfathomable how they can have such dignity and resilience in the face of such an injustice. If the justice system can fail like that for somebody, then we’re all in a precarious situation.”
Martin’s song ‘The Death of Adrian Moynihan’ is available on Spotify and the video can be found on his YouTube channel.