Death came swiftly like a thief in the night to the terrified Travelling community on the outskirts of Portarlington yesterday morning.
At 4.30 in the morning, Tom Harty (26) was asleep in his bed in the tiny white caravan he shared with his wife, Philomena, and their four children, all under five years old.
Before 5 a.m. he was dead, from two gunshots, one to the chest and the other to the back which he may have received while turning to protect his wife and children.
His two attackers used a shovel to rip the lock of the door of the caravan to carry out the murder and bring fear and terror to the tiny community living in the horseshoe-shaped halting site.
The shots were heard by two dozen other people who share the site and they put Tom Harty in his car and drove as fast as they could with the dying man to Portlaoise Hospital, 12 miles away.
Gardai in Portlaoise were alerted by the hospital authorities and a murder hunt got under way. It is being conducted by Supt Noel McCarthy of Portlaoise Garda station.
Early yesterday morning gardai were carrying out an inch-by-inch search of the site, which stands close to the railway line on the east side of Portarlington, on the Portlaoise road.
None of the Travellers was willing to say anything to reporters on what had happened and Philomena, the victim's widow, and her children, Roletta (4), Martin (3), Shane (2) and the infant, Rebecca, 11 months, were being comforted at another site.
Supt McCarthy said that the killing was not connected to another murder in the Travelling community, which took place last week in Co Sligo, when Patrick Ward was gunned down while attending a funeral.
He did not rule out, however, that Mr Harty was the victim of a feud which is unconnected to the Sligo killing.
Yesterday morning, as the caravan was being removed from the site for forensic investigation, two of the dead man's cousins, Martin and Margaret, left the site to make their first Holy Communion in nearby Killanard Church.
The white of Margaret's dress stood out sharply in contrast to the grim surroundings as gardai searched through the area for evidence. In Portarlington there was shock at the killing and surprise because the halting site had been a model of integration since it reopened two years ago.
Cllr Kathy Honan said that the Presentation Nuns, who live in a bungalow beside the site, had created a very good environment on the site.
"There was a pre-school there for the younger children and most of the older children are going to schools in the area. There had been no trouble there since the site reopened," she said.
She said Laois County Council had closed down the site two years ago when unapproved families had moved into it and there had been some friction.
"As far as I could see there was never any trouble since. It was working well and there was no sign that this horrible act of violence could take place," she said.
Her views were echoed by the local curate, Father Noel O'Brien, who said he was horrified by the killing and had visited relatives after he gave First Communion to the Harty cousins.
He prayed for the victim during the Mass and spoke later of the violence which seems to be afflicting the Travelling community. Local people described the dead man as "quiet but distant" and he was seldom seen in the area except near the camp, where he used to exercise some horses.
The Harty family are not particularly linked to the Portarlington area but have been living there since late March 1998. Most of the families on the site are related to the dead man.