Macroom community in shock after local father-of-one Derry Coakley shot dead

Joe Leogue

Friends of the man shot dead on a farm outside Macroom Co Cork last night have expressed their shock at the killing of the father-of-one.

The man has been named locally as Derry Coakley, who was in his fifties, and lived in Castle Street in the centre of Macroom with his elderly mother.

Gardaí were called to a farm at Raleigh, to the southwest of Macroom, at approximately 11:40pm last night following reports of a shooting.

It is understood that Mr Coakley telephoned a friend for help after he suffered the injury, and while he received treatment at the scene, he died there shortly thereafter.

A man in his sixties has today been arrested and is being detained at Bandon Garda Station under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2007.

It is believed that a local dispute over waste disposal may be a line of enquiry being followed by gardai.

Both approaches to the farm along a country boreen were closed off by garda cordon today.

Mr Coakley’s body remains at the scene which is currently preserved and the State Pathologist is expected on-site this afternoon.

The deceased was an agricultural contractor who also carried out work on behalf of the County Council around Macroom.

Local man Martin Coughlan, a former councillor, said he was friends with Mr Coakley for over 30 years, and described him as the “go-to man” in Macroom if work needed to be done.

“I don’t know what you say to you, I’m certainly in a state of shock myself and when I talk about it I get fairly emotional,” he said.

“I don’t know how to describe it, it’s a huge shock. Derry was known by everybody in town and anybody I’ve met have been in the same state of mind as me, they’re totally and utterly shocked.

Cork County Councillor Ted Lucey said he knew Mr Coakley for years, and that he was deeply shocked with the news.

“It’s devastating, I knew Derry very well and his family his mother, his sister Siobhan, his daughter Deirdre, her mother Siobhan as well. Derry lived in Castle Street. I was on the other side of the bridge as you cross over New Street .

Derry used to work in the council here, and his father before him worked in the council with diggers and tractors, and you couldn't meet a better man to do a job. It’s so sad.

"The town of Macroom would have been knocked down several times only for Derry, he used to go out in snow and frost and spread salt in all the estates and hills up to the schools.

“The more it’s getting on today, the more people really getting more shocked and more numbed by whole thing, and we say our sympathies to the family and it just hope they will be able to rally out of this, but it is an awful shock to the town and to his own family, and the people in the community,” Cllr Lucey said.

Gardaí are appealing for anyone who has any information or who were in the Raleigh North area of Macroom between 10.30pm and 12 midnight last night, 23rd October 2018 to contact Macroom Garda Station on 026-20590, the Garda Confidential line in 1800-666-111 or any Garda Station.