Man dies in shooting outside church wedding
The man, who was aged in his 60s, was shot on the roadside near St Mary’s church in the rural village of Newtownbutler.
Another male guest, aged in his 30s, was also shot in the incident while a third is understood to have sustained a knife wound to his hand.
The wedding party and their guests had travelled from Longford and Dublin.
Parish priest at St Mary’s Father Michael King was preparing to conduct the ceremony when the shooting happened outside.
“The bride was standing at the back of the church waiting to come up the aisle and the next thing there was a bit of commotion at the back of the church - several women ran in and said ’there are shots, there are shots, there is somebody shooting’,” he said.
The cleric revealed that there already had been disturbances outside the church prior to the fatal incident.
“There was an altercation in the car park long before the bride came – they were thumping and kicking each other,” he said.
After the shooting, the gunshot victims were driven to a police station in nearby Lisnaskea in a white van. The older man was airlifted from there to hospital in a police helicopter but he later died.
The injuries sustained by the other two wounded men are not believed to be life threatening
After a delay, the ceremony inside St Mary’s church went ahead.
Fr King said the wedding party had asked for the ceremony to continue as planned.
