A BLACK tie fluttered from the door of Christy Hanley's terraced cottage on Kilbeggan's main street yesterday as mourners made their way to his Requiem Mass at St James's Church in the Westmeath village.
Bouquets of flowers were stacked against the front door, one bearing the message "Rest in peace Christy, you didn't deserve this". Two ornamental horses stood on a window sill, a reminder of the 83-year-old's history at racecourses and fairs where he ran a roulette wheel and performed three-card tricks.
Four black horses with feather plumes stood to attention in front of the funeral carriage outside the church. Inside, Fr Barney Maxwell called for justice for Mr Hanley and spoke of the community's shock on hearing that the bachelor had been found dead in his home on Thursday morning. The extent of his injuries was obvious to mourners who filed past his open coffin before the ceremony.
Mr Hanley's death had caused great upset in Kilbeggan and surrounding districts, Fr Maxwell said. "Something in life has changed in our area radically. Something we didn't expect, something we didn't want, something that's horrified us," he said.
"It's not natural in our area to have such brutality."
People kept asking "why?" he said. "Why should it happen to a man who was so quiet and gentle, so inoffensive?" Fr Maxwell recalled Mr Hanley's trusting nature and his tendency to take out a wallet full of notes whenever he was buying something. "He trusted [ that] no one would rob him in this community and hopefully no one has. He trusted that no one would harm him in this community and we hope that is also true."
The mourners, led by Mr Hanley's nieces, Anne, Breda, Geraldine, Jean and Marie, heard that Mr Hanley was known "far and wide" for his horse-trading and roulette wheel. "It's over 50 years ago since I lost a shilling to him in Kilbeggan races and I still remember it," Fr Maxwell said. "And I never got it back and I'm not going to get it back now," he added, to laughter.
Mr Hanley had good friends in Kilbeggan who looked out for him after the recent death of his two sisters, Fr Maxwell said.
Hannah, whom he lived with, died last year, while his other sister Peg was recently struck and killed by a vehicle in the village.
Fr Maxwell questioned the nature of the person who killed the "quiet, simple, gentle man". He said that people who stabbed and shot and killed others did not seem to feel guilt. "They have no emotions about anything. Therefore they can sleep perfectly well at night because they have no conscience. So the killing of an innocent rural man like Christy wouldn't mean anything." He said the killer or killers must be brought to justice "because the community is not safe and Christy deserves that we find those who brutally brought about his death. So we appeal . . . to anyone who knows anything, any little thing at all that might help the gardaí in their search for these people.
"We are not here to judge them. We are here to forgive them because if we don't forgive, turn the other cheek, then the thing goes on for ever and ever, these feuds that we don't want. We don't want anger, we want forgiveness but we desperately want justice," he said.
Several hundred people attended the funeral, including many from the Travelling community. Two photographs of Mr Hanley with his roulette wheel, and with a mare and foal, were placed in the funeral carriage before the four Friesian horses took the funeral carriage from the churchyard to begin its journey to Clonminch Cemetery, Tullamore.
