Youth’s murder ‘not part of feud’
Holding back tears, Eugene Coughlan also said the fact that Darren’s organs were donated and will help give life to others meant a lot to their family.
Darren, 18, from Pineview Gardens, Moyross died from horrific head injuries at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital yesterday. He was admitted on Friday night after being assaulted by three men. The attack happened at the Old Cork Road, when Darren, an apprentice electrician, was chased by three men who jumped out of a red car.
Mr Coughlan, 47, said one side on the Limerick feud were trying to exploit his son’s death.
It is believed the family is related to a man involved in the murder of crime boss Kieran Keane.
Mr Coughlan said: “They are trying to draw us into something. We have nothing to do with any feud, nothing at all. I am disgusted with it. It is a propaganda stunt. I am really disgusted at this. We have worked all our lives and have nothing to do with anything at all. Darren was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It just happened to be him, as simple as that.”
Mr Coughlan said that doctors from the outset did not hold out much hope for his son. “He got such a bad beating and kicking and he was also stabbed in the head. There was a stab wound from some instrument in the side of his head,” he said.
Mr Coughlan said the fact that some of his son’s organs have been donated to others was a matter of great consolation to the family.
He explained: “That was our whole aim when we knew the worst, to donate his organs. He always said that if anything ever happened him that he wanted his organs donated.”
A senior garda spokesman said the Coughlan family had never been involved in the city feud.
He appealed to anybody who may have seen a red car in the vicinity of the Limerick Institute of Technology between 10pm and 10.30pm on Friday night last to contact them.
Flowers were left at the scene of the attack yesterday. One note read: “Silent tears, we wish to God that u were here. A laugh, a joke. A pint or two. This is how we’ll remember you.”
The murder is the second in the Limerick garda division within nine days, after a period of 14 months in which there was no violent death in Limerick.
