A murder trial jury yesterday heard that a man found dead in his cottage in Connemara had not collected his dole for two weeks before his body was discovered.
A prosecution witness, Mr Michael Folan, denied he had bound the man's hands with a strip from a sheet found torn and blood-stained in the cottage.
In the Central Criminal Court trial, Mr Patrick Joseph (P.J.) McGreene (29), with addresses at Corrib Park and St Mary's Road, Galway, has denied the murder of his uncle, Mr Tom Clisham (53), between November 24th, 1997, and December 4th, 1997, at Inveran, Co Galway.
He has also pleaded not guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to him.
Mr Folan was asked by Mr John Rogers SC, defending, to put on gloves and take up the bloodstained cloth used to tie Mr Clisham's hands and show it to the jury.
Mr Folan denied he had made the bonds from a sheet lying on the sofa of Mr Clisham's kitchen. His fingerprints were not on the cloth, he said.
Later, Mr Folan's nephew, Mr Cedric Burke, agreed with Mr Rogers that on December 3rd, 1997, he had noticed a mark on his uncle's face. He said he asked him about it, and his uncle told him he was in a fight and somebody hit him.
Mr Rogers put it to the witness that he had told gardai that Mr Folan had said a man had threatened him with a knife in Mr Clisham's house.
Mr Burke said he did not remember saying that.
Under further cross-examination Mr Burke said he thought he had asked his uncle who threatened him, but he couldn't remember anything about a knife.
Cross-examined again in the presence of the jury after a brief pause, Mr Burke was asked did he not remember putting that question to Mr Folan. "I do, yes", he replied.
His uncle said nothing in response, he said.
He agreed that if he had told gardai that Mr Folan said someone had threatened him with a knife in Mr Clisham's house, "it must be true".
Mr Michael Walsh, postmaster at a branch south-west of Inveran, where the deceased man collected his unemployment benefit, told the court the last time he had seen Mr Clisham alive was on Friday, November 21st, 1997, when he came to collect his dole.
Mr Clisham "usually" came on a Friday, he said, but the following Friday, November 28th, he had not arrived.
The witness said his father, Mr Thomas Walsh, was anxious about the whereabouts of Mr Clisham, and had made inquiries with his relatives, Coilin and Michael Clisham.
Mr Coilin Clisham, a first cousin of the deceased man, agreed with Mr Michael Durack SC, prosecuting, that he had gone drinking in the bar at the airport in Cois Fharraige with Mr Tom Clisham and Mr Padraig Con neally on the morning of November 24th.
Speaking in Irish, the witness said "there wasn't a row" and there had been no disagreement between Mr Clisham and Mr Conneally at the bar.
The trial continues.