Killer Patrick Quirke has been transferred to a prison closer to his family just three weeks into his life sentence for the murder of Bobby Ryan.

The Irish Independent has learned that the 50-year-old farmer was escorted from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin on Sunday.

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He was taken to Limerick Prison in the south-west of the country, where he is now housed on the jail’s C Wing.

Sources said the move was done to facilitate visits for his family and is standard procedure for prisoners.

Earlier this month he was handed a life sentence for the murder of part-time DJ Bobby Ryan (52), who was also known as ‘Mr Moonlight’.

In the three weeks since his conviction sources said he has been “quiet as a mouse” and did not come to adverse attention of prison officials.

It has also emerged that he shared the C1 landing in Mountjoy with an associate of the Kinahan cartel.

Quirke was placed in the same area as a male in his 50s who has been locked up in relation to a multi-million euro drug and firearm seizure linked to the international organised crime gang.

Quirke’s former landing mate is a close associate of Declan Brady, known as Mr Nobody, who is a senior figure within the Kinahan crime gang.

The C1 landing is mainly comprised of offenders who do not pose a risk within the prison service.

“He would not have been in long enough to either make acquaintances or enemies but it is a small landing and he did share it with a man linked to the Kinahan cartel,” a source said.

“He was in the Mountjoy bakery but this will not extend to Limerick and he will have to build up credit again in his new home.”

While being held in Mountjoy, Quirke was visited by his wife Imelda as well as other family members.

However, his family will now have to travel just over 40km to visit the convicted killer, compared to the 400km round trip to see him in the Dublin lock up.

It is now expected that Quirke will serve the rest of his life sentence in Limerick Prison.

The ‘love rival’ killer, now known as prisoner 107243, spent the first days of his prison term on suicide watch as is standard with people in the system for the first time.

He has not come to the attention to prison officials since being jailed and has been described as a model prisoner.

His trial at the Central Criminal Court heard that Quirke killed Mr Ryan because he was jealous of his relationship with Mary Lowry, who had just ended an affair with Quirke.

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