THERE WAS no need to rob Eugene Gillespie – he would have given you the shirt off his back, a relative told mourners at his funeral Mass at the weekend as the local population turned out in force to say farewell to one of the town’s best loved characters.
In his homily at St Anne’s Church at the end of a week when, as he pointed out, six people had died in violent circumstances, parish priest Fr Dominick Gillooly condemned the “disregard for human life”, saying we had reached “the depths of depravity” when fathers were killed in front of their children.
Addressing a congregation that included local Garda chiefs, Fr Gillooly also raised the issue of the anonymous 999 call made a day before Mr Gillespie (67) was found with horrific injuries at his home in Old Market Street.
“So many people over the last several days have expressed their disquiet and disbelief to me over the reported 999 call that indicated a bound and tied victim in a designated area,” said Fr Gillooly. “That would surely have warranted a knock on every door to inquire about the wellbeing of all residents.”
Hundreds of people walked down Old Market Street on Saturday on the way to Sligo cemetery as relatives and friends carried the coffin past the simple house where Eugene had spent all his life.
In an affectionate tribute, Eugene’s cousin Catherine O’Donovan had described him as a gentleman.
“ He was a philosopher and a deep thinker. He could quote from the Annals of the Four Masters, and he knew the dates of every battle, not only in Irish history, but in European history and also the American Civil War.”
There was knowing laughter as she recounted that her cousin had a view of everything political “and he was the best man I ever met at making a short story long”.
Eugene’s passion for vintage cars had reflected his preferred pace of life, she said. “Eugene was his own man. He was not influenced by money or the Celtic Tiger. He could have made millions during the building boom but he was not that type of man.”
The chief mourners were Eugene’s brother Brian and his sisters Elizabeth and Patsy. Mayor of Sligo Cllr David Cawley, chairwoman of Sligo County Council Cllr Veronica Cawley, Labour Senator Susan O’Keeffe and former Labour TD Cllr Declan Bree, a neighbour of Mr Gillespie’s, were among the 1,500 who attended the Mass. On Friday evening it took four hours for the estimated 2,000 people who came to pay their respects to file through Foley McGowan’s funeral home in Market Yard.
