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.