'There's only one Liam Lawlor'

THE eldest son of Liam Lawlor criticised the media for turning his father into “a figure of hate” in a moving eulogy at his father’s funeral mass in Lucan yesterday.

Niall Lawlor told a packed congregation of mourners at St Patrick's church in Esker that he did not recognise his father as the same man who was berated in the media throughout much of his political career.

Mr Lawlor, who flew to Moscow at the weekend to arrange the return of his father's body from Moscow, said the tragedy had been made "all the more difficult by certain events in the aftermath of my father's untimely death".