Three weeks after Kenmare farmer Mike Gaine went missing, one of the largest search operations in recent memory has uncovered no trace.
As questions mount, the community remains unsettled — and answers remain elusive.
It's a Monday afternoon in the Kenmare Mart and Co-Op. Farmers gather tightly and lean on the railings to get a good look at the sheep being auctioned.
Barely noticeable, a wave of a hand or the merest flicker of a finger indicates that a bid has been made. This is where the Kenmare farming community congregate. Most Mondays, local man Mike Gaine would be here with them but this week he is not.
He disappeared three weeks ago on 20 March.
One of the largest missing person operations ever seen in this country has found no trace of Mike.
There is concern among his fellow farmers but there is nevertheless a quietness at the mart, a reluctance to speak. Mike Gaine could be any of them.
Opposite the mart is the cement works, where Declan O’Neill is employed. He reflects on the unease that has settled on these parts in the weeks since Mike disappeared.
"In the mornings and evenings, you’re a bit more inclined to look over your shoulder," he told Prime Time.
Mike Gaine grew up in the town of Kenmare but for several decades now has lived with his wife on the road out toward Moll's Gap.
Further along that road is the land that he farmed, land that has been in his extended family for generations.The old family homestead is there, with several sheds and outbuildings.
While no family member has lived there for a number of years, Mike allowed an American man to live in a derelict building.
Few people we meet want to talk on camera.
Above the farm at Moll’s Gap is the quarry operated by local Cllr Johnny Healy Rae, who says that Mike Gaine and his family have been good neighbours.
He told Prime Time that much of the water for Kenmare came from Mike’s land and that he had always been very accommodating.
"I knew him well. He was a farmer and he was interested in rallying and different things. He was a fine man and a fine operator in every way," Cllr Healy Rae said.
Teddy O'Sullivan Casey, a Fine Gael councillor, also knows Mike and his family well.
"I know Mike all my life. We grew up in the same area, around the town. He was a great man for the community, especially the farming community. He was always there to help out," Cllr O’Sullivan Casey said.
Through multiple sources and CCTV footage, a picture can be painted of Mike Gaine’s movements on the day he disappeared. Like most farmers, Mike was an early riser and was spotted feeding his sheep around 7am on the morning of 20 March, as one of Cllr Healy Rae’s truck drivers drove past the farm.
At 7.15am, Mike drove his car into Kenmare Mart and Co-Op, just a few minutes down the road, checking to see what stock was in for that day’s auctions – something he did regularly around this time.
Twenty minutes later, at 7.35am, Mike was at Dan McCarthy’s grocery and farm supply shop in Kenmare town.
He loaded up several bags of sheep feed and cattle feed, before heading into the shop to pay. Again, Mike was a familiar face here, often on site before the shop even opened.
Inside, he stopped to chat with the cashier and his friend Flor O’Brien, who says they enjoyed the free tea together.
Just before 8am, Flor O’Brien drove away from the store followed by Mike Gaine. The two men drove along the Sneem road to a spot where Mr O’Brien parks up his lorry.
They met with another friend to examine a load of straw, before going their separate ways at 8.15am.
The last confirmed sighting of Mike Gaine comes about 90 minutes later. He stopped at Whyte's Centra store, a filling station on the road between Kenmare and his farm.
CCTV footage shows Mike in the store wearing his distinctive orange hat. The staff there also knew Mike as a regular customer. He bought credit for his phone and a roll at the deli before getting into his car and driving away.
It was a morning that paints a picture of a busy and sociable man. A fair reflection of the man described by the many people who knew him in and around Kenmare.
What happened next remains shrouded in mystery.
There are no further confirmed sightings of Mike Gaine. His wife Janice reported him missing the next day and his car was found in the yard of his farm. Some locals have said that it was parked in an unusual place.
The gate of the farm was locked, and the car appeared to have nothing missing from it. Mike’s phone and wallet were still inside, as was the roll he’d bought in Whyte’s Centra.
Those who know Mike say that he would not have simply walked away from the car, leaving his phone and wallet behind. Nor would he walk away from his work as a farmer.
"No. Completely the opposite," Cllr Healy-Rae said.
"Mike was a farmer. He would tend to his animals several times a day. He had duties that he needed to carry out every day. It would be completely out of character."
What followed was a missing person search on a scale not seen in Ireland for several decades, involving the Gardaí, Defence Forces, Mountain Rescue, Civil Defence, many other local groups and several hundred civilian volunteers.
This huge search has uncovered no clues as to Mike Gaine's whereabouts, though in a remote cave on his land teams uncovered a makeshift camp containing a bow and arrows, along with some other items including food and clothing.
Gardaí do not believe that that items are connected to Mike’s disappearance.
Cllr O'Sullivan Casey says that news of his disappearance has sent shockwaves through the community.
"When I first heard it, I suppose everyone just assumed maybe he was after having a little fall on the farm or something or had some bit of an accident. The initial search party, everyone dropped everything and went up into hope or find him stuck in a drain or something," he said.
"It's getting more concerning as every day goes by," he added.
One of the reasons for the huge search operation was the vast area that needs to be explored. Mike Gaine's land lies in a glacial valley just south of Moll’s Gap.
Not much further north is Kerry National Park, loomed over by the formidable Macgillycuddy’s Reeks mountain range.
No man can simply disappear into thin air but this part of Kerry is a wide expanse of rugged wilderness, much of it entirely untamed. Searching it is no small order, and the operation requires very specific expertise and local knowledge.
"It is rugged and wild and beautiful terrain, but it has been well searched. I was up there myself on the first Friday, we got stuck ourselves several times going through, but it has been very well searched," Teddy O’Sullivan Casey says, "and you have drones and they have all this high-definition camera footage, mapping techniques, all this kind of stuff. To find no trace makes it very bizarre."
In an information vacuum, the gaps are often filled with speculation. Kenmare is awash with rumour.
Johnny Healy-Rae says that the speculation has been unhelpful.
"I have no idea. They could all be true or they could all be untrue, most likely. We still haven’t the right, truthful, story and we only hope at this stage that the Gardaí and other state agencies will piece it together and bring Mike home safe."
Teddy O’Sullivan Casey says that it is very hard for the community not knowing what happened to Mike, and added that there is a feeling locally that someone has to know something.
"I would appeal to that person or those persons that do know anything or know what happened or know where Mike is to please, if they have any conscience at all that they come forward and tell someone so that the suffering could be brought to an end," he said.
An Garda Síochána told Prime Time that it has made 230 specific enquiries regarding Mike Gaine’s disappearance, taking almost 100 witness statements and recovering 1,500 hours of CCTV and dashcam footage.
After three weeks of searching, there are still far more questions than answers.
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A report from Conor Wilson and Sallyanne Godson on the disappearance of Kerry farmer Mike Gaine is broadcast on the 10 April edition of RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player at 9.35pm.
