Manner of death set aside as “real’ Michael mourned

THE priest at the funeral of the Tipperary man shot dead by Government forces in Bolivia two weeks ago asked the question that has been at the forefront of many people’s minds in the intervening days: Who is Michael Dwyer?

From the day he and two others were killed, people both in and beyond the small community where he was yesterday laid to rest have wondered who he was, why he was in Bolivia, and whether he was really, as authorities there claim, involved in a plot to kill the country’s president.

Yesterday, the reasons why he was shot in a hotel in Santa Cruz while apparently working for a man with known intentions to fight for the autonomy for the Bolivian region of Santa Cruz, were set aside.

“Who is Michael Dwyer?” Father Michael Cooney, parish priest of the small church in Terryglass, asked the packed church and overflow of mourners gathered outside. “Can I invite each of you to ask yourselves that question, because I feel he may have been lost to us in the last couple of weeks, not just physically but in the minds and hearts of all who knew and loved Michael.

“Call to the mind the Michael you knew and loved. It might be the Michael you knew through the press and media and general talk over the last 10 days. Or more likely it is the Michael Dwyer from Brocka, from a quiet, hardworking family. The Michael that you (his parents), Caroline and Marty, loved and nurtured into this world. The loving and well-loved son, the caring brother, the fun-loving school and college-goer, the friend in need, the good-time and partying young man, the ladies’ man, the man who loved his car.”

The priest referred to the fact the young man had been separated from his family for some time.

“Michael was the thoughtful family man who bought the Christmas presents for the family last November, because he knew he would not be home at Christmas time. He was the caring brother and grandson who arranged for his young brother, Emmett, and his gran, to be together on the day they share as a birthday so that he could talk to both of them on that day. He was the loving son who remembered Mother’s Day just a few weeks ago in March just a few weeks before his tragic and untimely death.”

The 24-year-old’s older sister, Aisling, led the Offertory procession which included immediate family members. His brother, 14-year-old Emmett, bore the hurley from the Shannon Rovers club with which he won silverware at underage level. Others brought his degree certificate in construction management and the picture of his car which was his passion.

Later in the ceremony, his 21-year-old sister, Ciara, read a poem entitled “I’m Free’ as part of the Communion Reflection. She read it all the way through the verses before sobbing gently.

Then, before the Coldplay song “I will fix you’ was played at the request of his brother, Emmett, Michael Dwyer’s best friend, Ronan Fox, read a tribute.

“Mike was a really good friend to all of us. The kind of friend that stands by you when you need somebody to be there, the kind of friend that arrives at your door at 11.30pm on a Saturday night and says “come on, we are going out’, the kind of guy that took what life threw at him and ran with it,” he said.

“Family and friends were the most important things to Mike: cars and women were his passions.

“When Mike figured out how to combine the two, well that is another story... Mike’s death was sudden, but I remember when I heard the news I was stunned, I couldn’t believe it. Mike was too young, but the more I think about it the more I realise Mike lived his life to the full. I will forever be grateful for knowing Mike... Mike we love you, rest in peace buddy.”