People needed to let go of prejudice and hatred and change their behaviour and attitude if peace was to be secured, mourners at a Limerick drug dealer's funeral were told yesterday.
Father Donough O'Malley told friends and family of Mr Kieran Keane, who was shot dead near Limerick 10 days ago, that peace was God's gift to us. "Like all gifts it [should be] appreciated and valued and it must be worked at".
As he gave his homily in St Mary's Church, Limerick city, gardaí mounted a major security operation involving dozens of uniformed gardaí, armed detectives and the Garda helicopter.
Tensions were running high in the city as Mr Keane was buried. At 7 a.m. yesterday morning, just hours before the 11 a.m. funeral Mass, another home - the second in less than a week - was petrol-bombed. The attack was linked to the long-running feud in the city in which Mr Keane and his associates were involved.
While there was a small media presence at Mr Keane's removal on Wednesday night and at the funeral Mass yesterday, journalists did not attend the burial at Castletroy because of safety fears. Just a handful of photographers were present at the Mass and all stayed as far away from the mourners as possible. One TV crew shot footage from inside its car.
A crowd of several hundred, smaller than the estimated 800 seen at the removal Mass, was present at yesterday's service. Leading the mourners were Mr Keane's widow, Mrs Sophie Keane, and his two young sons, Joseph and Kieran. Also in attendance was Mr Keane's nephew Mr Owen Treacy, who had been stabbed repeatedly during the same attack which claimed his uncle's life.
The proceedings had been delayed so Mr Treacy could be given time to recover and attend. Absent was Mr Keane's brother Christie Keane, who was refused temporary release from prison, where he is serving a 10-year drugs sentence. The dead man's four other brothers and six sisters were at the service.
Many of the extended Keane gang who were sentenced to short terms of imprisonment after a melee outside Limerick Circuit Court last Monday week were among the mourners having secured bail and leave to appeal.
Mr Keane's coffin was covered by a lavish presentation of red roses and his hearse and two other funeral cars were packed with flowers from his wife, sons, nephews and family and friends - they read "Husband", "No 1 Uncle", and "Best Dad" while a fourth simply read "Keane".
A fleet of four other limousines ferried female members of the family to and from the church. A large group of male mourners, predominantly in their 20s and early 30s, all dressed in black suits and ties with white shirts, walked behind the coffin from the service.
Earlier, Father O'Malley had told the mourners: "Death by violence is difficult to accept. Violence is the result of deep hatred".
Father O'Malley urged those gathered to "pray for Kieran's immortal soul, to ask God to be merciful to him and in the fullness of time to receive him into his kingdom".
"To have peace it is necessary to let go of prejudice and hatred. This is difficult, for all of us to do, as it requires a change of heart, attitude and behaviour ... it requires hard work on our part to change our attitude. But this can be done successfully with God's help and our own goodwill. Two thousand years ago, people believed God was a God of revenge - an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," Father O'Malley said.
"But God is the person Christ told us and showed us by his life, and the true sign of a Christian is to be a person of forgiveness and love. That is \ each of us has to try to live each day".
