Carrigaline murder victim to be buried in family ceremony

THE man gunned down in a gangland-style hit in Carrigaline last week will be buried in a private ceremony today.

Only immediate family and a handful of close friends and relatives have been invited to attend the funeral Mass in Ballinora of Darren Falsey, 36, the suspected drug dealer who was killed six days ago.

The father of two was found by his partner, Lorraine Conroy, lying in a pool of blood in the hallway of their rented home at Ashbourne Court last Wednesday afternoon.

He had been shot three times — twice in the torso and once in the head — from a high-powered 9mm handgun that gardaí believe may have been fitted with a silencer.

It is believed the victim knew his life was in danger following threats he received in February.

Detectives know he fled to Britain to live with his brother, Ronan, for several weeks afterwards, and that he returned to Cork sometime in March but moved back to England again and stayed there until May.

They are investigating his mobile-phone records in a bid to trace the source and nature of the threats.

However, gardaí moved to dampen speculation of Real IRA involvement in the murder. The dissidents, who claimed responsibility for the shooting dead of convicted drug dealer Gerard Staunton in Cork last year, also threatened other drug dealers who operate in the city.

It had been reported that Mr Falsey was shot because he refused to pay the dissidents protection money, and that he received a bullet in the post.

But gardaí said they are focusing on the possibility that rival drug gangs are involved in the murder and that Mr Falsey was shot dead because of a local drugs debt.

A team of up to 60 gardaí is actively pursuing several lines of enquiry.

They conducted door-to-door enquiries last night in housing estates linked by alleyways to Ashbourne Court. However, as of last night, the team had no reports of anyone hearing gunshots near the victim’s house last Wednesday, or any reports of anybody making a getaway from the scene.

They are now beginning to trawl through hours of CCTV footage retrieved from local premises.

They are also considering mounting checkpoints in the Ashbourne Court area tomorrow afternoon in the hope of gleaning key information from people who would have been in the area last week.