Thousands visit website to light virtual candles

MORE than 22,500 people have visited the website set up by the Limerick Leader newspaper to allow the public to express their feelings on the brutal murder of rugby captain, Shane Geoghegan.

Editor Alan English said more than 11,000 people had lit virtual candles on the site to express their grief and another 2,000 had left messages from all over the world. The site was started on Monday.

Mr English said: “We intend to leave it there for all time and some time in the future we will put it into a printed binder to give to the Geoghegan family to let them see the support that has been received.

“I know members of the Geoghegan family have visited the website and were overwhelmed with the support. It shows the sentiment of the people of Limerick and shows the overwhelming goodness of the people of Limerick. Children as young as nine and 10 have left messages.”

He said he came up with the idea to enable people express their outrage and their sympathy no matter where they were.

Mr English said they monitor the messages. “There is so much anger out there some people can go over the top with their language and about one in every 25 messages has had to be moderated.”