Murder victim came from ‘well respected’ family

THE family of the man who was gunned down in Cork last week are well-respected and have the support of their local community, a priest told mourners yesterday.

Canon Donal Linehan was speaking at the private funeral ceremony for Darren Falsey in the Church of St James, a little church in Ballinora on the western outskirts of Cork city, close to Waterfall where the victim of a suspected gangland attack grew up.

From a well-respected family who distanced themselves from his illegal activity, Mr Falsey, 36, was a suspected drug dealer.

He was shot three times at close range — twice in the chest and once in the head — in the hallway of his rented home in Ashbourne Court in Carrigaline last Wednesday afternoon.

He was found lying in a pool of blood by his partner, Lorraine, when she returned from a shopping trip.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Only immediate family members, relations and close friends were asked to attend the funeral Mass after Mr Falsey’s family requested privacy.

Mourners were led by his parents, his siblings, his partner, and his two young children.

During the funeral mass, Ballinora’s parish priest, Canon Lenihan, said: “We are gathered here to help the family deal with their anguish, their shock and their confusion.

“The Falsey family are highly regarded in the Waterfall and Ballinora areas and have considerable sympathy and support here.

“My hope is that we will be open to hearing two messages of faith.

“First of all that ‘I never take back my love’. Secondly, ‘do not be afraid’.”

He said that, as Catholics, mourners are “entrusting Darren into God’s unfailing love and in the fullness of life beyond the human”.

A team of up to 60 gardaí investigating the murder is still pursuing several lines of enquiry, including the possibility that Mr Falsey was executed on the orders of local rival drugs gangs over a drugs debt.

Gardaí have also spoken to the man he visited in Cork Prison just hours before he was shot in an effort to establish the source of threats made against the victim in February which forced him to flee to England.

Detectives are also examining Mr Falsey’s mobile phone records, trawling through CCTV footage and conducting extensive door- to-door enquiries in the Carrigaline area.

The investigating team is considering setting up checkpoints in the Ashbourne Court area of Carrigaline today — exactly seven days on from the shooting — in the hope of speaking to people who may have been in the same area at the time of the shooting.