Teresa Kelly reflects on life after her husband’s murder

“I sat up that evening… waiting for Patsy to come home.”

These are the poignant words of Teresa Kelly, pictured below, 50 years on from the abduction and brutal murder of her husband on July 24, 1974, after locking up the Corner Bar in Trillick.

It is exactly half a century ago last week since the lives of Mrs Kelly, her family, and the Trillick community were devastated by the events of that summer night.

Over the intervening decades, they have fought a determined campaign for the truth of what happened to come out. They now hope that the repeal of the controversial Legacy Act will lead to the fresh inquest that was ordered into Patsy Kelly’s death last year.

“I remember that very evening when Patsy went to leave. All the children used to run to the side of the car for kisses and hugs. They did that all the time and he loved it,” Mrs Kelly told the Herald.

“Patsy would always go to the children when he arrived home from the pub. That night I closed the gates and sat up waiting for him to come home. But he didn’t.”

Teresa and Patsy had married in 1966. She describes him as “a great dancer”, who was interested in politics and helping both sides of the community. He was elected to the first Omagh District Council in 1973.

“I worked in the pub during the day, and would then take the children home with me. It was all go in those years,” she recalled.

But the events of that terrible night in 1974 have stayed with Teresa, and she is extremely candid about the devastating impact of Patsy’s murder on her and the children.

“There were days when I didn’t want to get out of bed,” she adds.

“But the children were the best thing that ever happened to me. You just had to get up and help them.”

Looking back, Teresa concedes that she took a strict approach in raising her children as a sole parent,

“I was very sharp with them, and kept the sally rod behind the Sacred Heart picture. I expected a lot from them as they had to do things that most other children didn’t have to.

“I actually used to think that they’d hold that against me.

“It was very difficult, but my sisters and extended family were very good to me. In fact, the whole community was, and still is, very supportive.”

A reflection of that support was clearly evident last Saturday when, despite incessant rain, hundreds of people walked from the Badoney Road where Patsy Kelly was abducted from, to the top of Brougher Mountain.

Teresa Kelly attended the event, which was addressed by members of the Kelly family and also Trillick-based Sinn Fein councillor, Stephen McCann.