The parish priest in the village of Abbeylara, Co Longford, told the inquest he was unaware a siege was taking place in the locality last April until his brother telephoned him from Dublin on the first night of the standoff.
The gardai were called to the Carthy home at 5.25 p.m. on April 19th after Mrs Rose Carthy telephoned in a distressed state to say she had been put out of her house by her 27-year-old son John, who had locked himself inside with a loaded shotgun.
He had fired three shots.
Father P.J. Fitzpatrick said the first he knew of the siege was when his brother, who had seen the 9 o'clock news at his home in Dublin, called him at 9.30 p.m.
However, earlier that evening, he recalled, a plain-clothes and a uniformed garda had asked him where the Carthys lived and they seemed to be in a hurry.
He said that while he knew Mr Carthy as a parishioner, his knowledge of him was limited to social occasions such as football matches.
He did not know he suffered from depression, had been in a psychiatric hospital, or that he had a gun taken from him.
During the fortnight before the siege he had given Mr Carthy a lift to Granard and this was the last time he spoke to him.
On the morning of Mr Carthy's death, April 20th, he telephoned Mr Carthy's cousin for his telephone number and called his house up to 10 times to try to communicate with him. The phone rang out.
At 5.30 p.m., before going to prepare his church for Mass, he again tried to call Mr Carthy but got no reply. He went across the road to Divines to watch the news and while there somebody ran in and said the gardai were looking for him.
A Garda took him to Carthy's house, arriving at about 6.15 p.m. He saw a body on the road covered by a cloth. He pulled back the cover and saw it was John Carthy. He anointed him and said prayers over him.
With the Carthy family's approval he announced before evening Mass at Abbeylara church that Mr Carthy was dead.
Mr Patrick Gageby SC, for the Carthy family, put it to him that the fact that his brother had to call him from Dublin to tell him about the siege suggested very few people in Abbeylara knew it was going on. Father Fitzpatrick agreed.