Around 800 mourners gathered in Limerick city last night for the removal of Mr Kieran Keane, the drug-dealer murdered last Wednesday. The ceremony passed off without incident. Conor Lally reports.
Gardaí staged a big surveillance operation, with dozens of uniformed gardaí as well as armed detectives watching from unmarked cars.
A similarly heavy security operation is expected this morning when Mr Keane is due to be buried in Castletroy after 11 a.m. Mass in the city.
The funeral had been postponed for a number of days because family members wanted to wait until Mr Keane's nephew, Mr Owen Treacy, was well enough to attend. Mr Treacy was stabbed repeatedly in the same attack which claimed his uncle's life last Wednesday but left hospital yesterday and was present last night.
A crowd of around 600 gathered at Cross's Funeral Home in the city centre last night where most stood in the freezing rain for over an hour before Mr Keane's remains were taken by hearse to St Mary's Church around 15 minutes' walk away.
The public house across the road from Cross's appeared to have closed for business for the evening.
The mourners walked behind the hearse in silence through city streets where many curious residents appeared in doorways to watch the procession. It included two other funeral cars packed with floral tributes and four limousines packed with family members.
The mourners made their way to St Mary's where a second crowd of at least 200 had gathered.
Such was the volume of people in attendance that many already-sodden mourners were forced to listen to the Mass in the car park of the sizeable church.
Mr Keane leaves behind two young children.
The dead man's brother, Christie Keane, who is serving a 10-year prison term in Portlaoise prison, was refused temporary release to attend the funeral.
Both Mr Keane and Mr Treacy were taken by abductors from the Garryowen area in Limerick last Wednesday night to a rural lane three miles away in Drombanna where Mr Keane was shot in the head and Mr Treacy stabbed. Gardaí believe last week's attack was linked to the alleged abduction of brothers Eddie and Kieran Ryan.
Detectives also believe a third party was involved and that the alleged Ryan abduction and the attack on Mr Keane and Mr Treacy were part of a drug-related gang feud in Limerick city.