Michael Gaine, the murdered Kerry farmer whose remains were found in a slurry spreader last year, left an estate valued at €1.86 million, official records show.
Gaine (56) was reported missing in March 2025, prompting a number of large-scale searches of farmland over almost two months and involving scores of gardaí, mountain search teams and Defence Forces personnel.
He was last seen on CCTV buying mobile phone credit at a Centra shop in Kenmare on March 20th before driving off in his car. The car, containing Gaine’s phone and wallet, was later found by gardaí searching a farmyard at Carrig East, near Kenmare.
The farmyard, part of the Gaine family property, is a few kilometres from where Gaine and his wife lived at Carhoomeengar.
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After searches proved fruitless, Gaine’s dismembered remains were eventually found when a relative was spreading slurry on the farm.
Papers released by the Probate Office this week list Gaine’s death as having occurred at Carrig East on May 16th, 2025, although gardaí believe Gaine was killed on the day he went missing.
Gardaí are still investigating the farmer’s murder. Gaine is survived by his wife, Janice.
Racehorse owner Edward Wallace, who died on September 6th last year, left a gross estate valued at almost €6.3 million, according to other Probate Office papers filed this week.
Wallace, of Brighton Road, Foxrock, Dublin, was well known in racing circles in Ireland and Britain. He was known for owning a number of winning horses, including Cheltenham Festival winner Pizarro.
Originally from Bruff in Co Limerick, Wallace passed away after a short illness in the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London.
Insurance industry director Hugh Governey of Heytesbury Lane in Ballsbridge, Dublin, left an estate valued at €3.2 million. He died in February 2025.
Governey was also known as an accredited mediator and worked with industry and sporting organisations. He also chaired the Dublin Business Innovation Centre and was a board member of the Irish Credit Bureau and the Rehab charity organisation.
Governey, a native of Carlow, was the biggest shareholder in former insurance agency Coyle Hamilton, when US insurance giant Willis paid a reported €70 million for a 56 per cent stake in the firm in 2004. The deal netted Governey €7 million.
