The priest concelebrating the funeral mass of murdered veteran criminal Eamon Kelly has criticised the media for its coverage of his death.
Monsignor Alex Stenson told several hundred mourners at St Brigid’s Church, Howth Rd, Killester, north Dublin, this morning that not everything they had read in the newspapers since the killing last week was true.
“His death, being brutally murdered last week, was a horrendous crime. It was evil and nothing justifies it. We are all sinners. When we read of other people we can judge them and we can be slow to judge ourselves.”
He said 65-year-old Kelly was a family man who loved his children and his grandchildren and have many happy memories of spending time with them.
Kelly was shot dead outside his family home on Furry Park Road, Killester, last Tuesday week, December 4th.
The dead man was once associated with the Official IRA and in recent years had been mentor to some of the biggest organised crime gangs in the State.
The gangs he worked with have been feuding with the Real IRA in recent years, in a dispute over the dissidents’ attempts to extort money from the gangs.
Among the mourners today was Dessie O’Hare, the former INLA man and so-called ‘Border Fox’.