‘The Girl in the Water’ airs tonight
THE Cavan producer of an RTÉ One television documentary about the death of Kelly Lynch in Monaghan Town in 2024 says he decided to make the programme because a TikTok made by Kelly’s mother, Julieanne made him stop in his tracks.
The programme called 'The Girl in the Water' airs at 9:35pm tonight (Wednesday), but will be available to view later on RTÈ Player.
Alan Bradley from Virginia is a multi-award-winning documentary director and actor.
On why he decided to make a documentary on Kelly Lynch’s case, he told RTÈ: “A 23-year-old woman had died on St Patrick’s Day 2024. Found under a bridge in Monaghan after being missing for hours. And I hadn’t heard a thing about it. No headlines. No breaking news. No public outcry. Nothing.
“I remember thinking: How is that possible? How, in modern Ireland, does a young woman die in those circumstances and it doesn’t even register in the national conversation? It didn’t sit right with me. It still doesn’t.”
Alan was also struck by Julieanne Lynch’s resolve to find the truth of what happened to her daughter despite her mother’s grief.
“One of the most powerful moments we filmed was in Monaghan town square,” Alan said. “Julieanne stood there with a megaphone in her hand, calling out her daughter’s name, demanding answers. It wasn’t staged. It wasn’t performative. It was raw and real and impossible to ignore.
“Watching her in that moment, I thought: This is what love looks like when it has nowhere else to go. It becomes a voice. It becomes a fight.”
Kelly Lynch’s family continue their campaign to have her death treated as suspicious.
Two pathologists' reports concluded death by drowning and hypothermia respectively, while a third privately-funded forensic report funded by The Katie Trust said Kelly died following a “physical violent assault”.
Kelly’s family have always questioned the initial garda investigation into her death and expressed concerns about the preservation of the scene and the securing of CCTV footage of the area.
* 'The Girl in the Water', RTÈ One, Wednesday July 8 at 9:35m or catch up via RTÈ Player.