Shane Geoghegan remembered a year on

By Jimmy Woulfe, Mid-West Correspondent

Monday, November 09, 2009

WHEN the Garryowen thirds team took to the field at the weekend, there was no number 3 on the jersey of the tight head prop.

This is a reminder of a savage murder one year ago today, when Shane Geoghegan was gunned down when he was mistaken for a drug baron who moved into Kilteragh estate in Dooradoyle where Shane lived with his fiancée. He had been at a friends house in the estate to watch the Ireland v Australia rugby game.

Shane was walking towards his own house at around 1.30 on Sunday morning when a gunman appeared and started firing a semi-automatic weapon. Shane ran and got in a side entrance to a neighbour’s house. The gunman followed and Shane fell dead near a rear patio door.

The attack was organised by the McCarthy Dundon gang and the intended target was a known drugs importer who lives on the same street where the shooting occurred.

Kilteragh is not far from Fr Russell Road where Shane was brought up. Crescent College Comprehensive which he attended and where he learned his rugby, is just over the boundary wall from Kilteragh estate. His club Garryowen, is directly across the road from Kilteragh.

Addressing mourners at the funeral Mass Fr Jim Maher, who taught Shane at Crescent College Comprehensive said: "It is another sad reflection on the more sinister aspects of our city where this kind of violent crime leaves so much pain and sorrow, suffering and heartache."

Thousands lined the route to Mungret cemetery where Shane was laid to rest alongside his little sister, Katie, who died aged 12 from leukaemia.

The club recently launched the Shane Geoghegan Trust. His mother, Mary Geoghegan, at the launch said: "From the day we lost Shane, we’ve been fighting for his memory... because of the danger that he may be remembered only by the manner of his dying. That would be another tragedy.

"He was a contributor. He made other people’s lives better. His name should continue to remind people of that wonderful quality, and that’s the reason for this trust."

And that vacant No 3 space on the light blue of the Garryowen jersey will mark the life of a player who led by example.

Tonight an anniversary Mass will be celebrated at the Garryowen clubhouse.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, November 09, 2009