Who do we want as role models, asks family of man killed by attacker who bragged of 'Conor McGregor' punch

'No parent should have to watch their child die. No parent should ever have to bury their child.'

Maurice Boland received the mandatory sentence of life in prison for murder. File photo

The family of a 26-year-old man who was murdered as he walked alone on the street of a rural town have said that Irish society must ask itself "who we want as role models for young men", after hearing the on-bail attacker boasted that he had punched his vulnerable victim "like Conor McGregor in the UFC".

In an emotional victim impact statement delivered to the Central Criminal Court during Monday's sentencing of Maurice Boland — who received the mandatory sentence of life in prison for murder — the family of Cian Gallagher said the three young men who had stopped to help and protect Cian as he lay on the ground, "when we as his family could not, are role models".