Hundreds of mourners gathered at the Church of Our Lady's Nativity, Leixlip, Co Kildare, yesterday evening for the removal service of Oliver Lacey, who was brutally killed by a gang of youths last weekend.
Mr Lacey's sons, Mark and Oliver, carried his coffin into the church shortly after 6pm with the assistance of the deceased's brothers: Liam, Joe, Noel and Francis.
The 51-year-old widower died on Saturday morning some seven hours after he had been beaten and kicked in an unprovoked attack by a gang of eight teenagers and young men in the garden of his home in Leixlip.
Fr Michael Hurley said the parish shared a "deep sense of shock and sadness" with the Lacey family "that life has become so vulgar and so angry that Oliver should have to die in the way he did".
The community had come together to try to make sense of the tragedy and a life taken so suddenly. "It is very easy to feel the deep and raw emotion we carry this evening," Fr Hurley said.
He offered his deepest sympathies and those of the parish to the Lacey family, but said he recognised that words were not adequate at this time.
"We can only sense the deep sense of loss and disbelief that this family is living through."
Mr Lacey was attacked while trying to protect his son and two young men who had been fleeing the gang, some of whom are understood to be as young as 15.
Gardaí were yesterday preparing a file for the DPP. It is understood that only two of the gang are over 18 and all are believed to have come forward for questioning, some in the company of their parents.
Mr Lacey's funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11am today at the Church of Our Lady's Nativity in Leixlip, before his burial at Donacomper Cemetery, Celbridge.
