Limerick people showed solidarity for Shane funeral

More than 1,000 mourners filled St Joseph’s Church on Nov 12, 2008, for the funeral Mass of Shane Geoghegan.

More than 2,000 others gathered outside.

In his homily, Fr Jim Maher, who taught Shane when he was a student at Crescent College Comprehensive, questioned what society had become and prayed that Shane’s murder would not be in vain.

Describing Shane as an easygoing giant, he said: “It raises many questions about the direction that our city and country are going. It is another sad reflection of the more sinister aspects of out city, where this kind of violent crime leaves so much pain and sorrow, suffering and heartache in its wake.”

He recalled that Shane’s parents, Tom and Mary, had previously endured the heartache of losing their daughter, Katie, to leukaemia when just 12 years of age, and now had their son taken from them at the age of 28.

Fr Maher added: “And to think that hardly a stone’s throw away from his home, his former school and his rugby club, Garryowen, he was brutally set upon.

“It makes what happened all the more shocking and adds to our sense of loss, pain and revulsion. In the early hours of Sunday morning, as Shane made his way home after having had an enjoyable evening in the company of friends, his expectation was that he would get home safe and sound.

“Sadly, that was not to be. His homecoming was brutally interrupted. Hopefully, Shane’s death will mark a turning point.”

Shane’s younger brother Anthony recited the David Harkin poem, Remember Me, which opens with the lines: “Do not shed tears when I have gone, but smile instead, because I have lived.”

A pencil sketch of Shane rested next to his coffin, along with a rugby ball. Work colleagues from Air Atlanta, where Shane was a fitter, brought up a model aircraft as their tribute.

Members of Garryowen rugby club, where Shane was a team captain, draped the coffin with the club’s sky-blue flag.

As the funeral cortege made the three-mile journey to Castlemungret cemetery, the entire route was lined by the people of Limerick in a poignant display of solidarity.