The jury in the Tipperary murder trial has heard that an audio recording of Mary Lowry talking to a man she began dating almost a year after the disappearance of Bobby Ryan was found on a hard drive seized from the home of Patrick Quirke.
Ms Lowry returned to the witness box today to confirm it was her voice on the eight minute recording found by gardaí.
In the recording she can be heard talking to her then boyfriend Flor Cantillon, with whom she was in a relationship between 2012 and 2014.
Mr Cantillon also gave evidence and identified his voice on the recording. Both witnesses said they did not give anyone permission to record their conversation.
Mr Quirke, of Breanshamore, Co Tipperary, is on trial accused of murdering Mr Ryan, a part-time DJ known as Mr Moonlight.
Mr Quirke has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Ryan at an unknown location on a date between 3 June 2011 and 30 April 2013.
Mr Ryan's body was found in a disused run off tank at his girlfriend Ms Lowry's farm two years after he went missing.
The farm was being leased by Mr Quirke who had previously been in a relationship with Ms Lowry.
On the recording Ms Lowry can be heard laughing as she reads from the problem page of a newspaper during which a woman says she has discovered her husband is cross-dressing.
Detective Sergeant John Keane told the court he played the audio to Ms Lowry and Mr Cantillon earlier this year. He said the recording was contained on a hard drive which had been seized from Mr Quirke's home on 17 May 2013.
Flor Cantillon told the court he met Ms Lowry in Killarney on St Patrick's Weekend in 2012 and was in a relationship with her until 2014, with a short break in between.
He said he often stayed at her home at Fawnagowan in Tipperary. He said they would buy newspapers and read the problem pages.
In January of this year he was asked to attend Tipperary Garda Station where the recording was played to him.
He said he could hear Ms Lowry's voice very clearly on the tape and could hear his own voice. He said he was not sure at first if it was his voice but when he heard more of the tape he identified his own voice.
Ms Lowry said she confirmed to gardaí that she was "100% certain" it was her voice on the tape. She confirmed to prosecuting counsel Michael Bowman that she did not record the conversation nor did she give anyone else permission to record it.
Ms Lowry's brother, Eddie Quigley, also told the court that Mr Quirke was not happy about his sister being involved with Mr Ryan and had asked him to "talk sense into her".
He said: "He just hadn't anything good to say about Bobby Ryan and was saying he was playing music and was out late at night. He asked me to talk sense into her. He felt she was doing the wrong thing being involved with Bobby Ryan. I felt it was Mary's own decision, what she wanted to do."
Mr Quigley said his sister was "devastated" after her husband Martin died and found it difficult to cope. He said he felt she was running away from it and never really talked about his death. "She probably needed to talk to someone but she didn't, she tried to get on as best she could," he said.
His evidence continues tomorrow.
