BRAVE PRIEST HECKLED AT GANGSTER FUNERAL
But dead man’s family stand by cleric who says: It’s my job to speak up
ATTEMPTS were made to shout down a courageous priest at a funeral yesterday, when he spoke out about gangland crime.
Fr David Halpin told mourners, at the service for murdered Darragh Nugent, that the victim ‘made bad decisions in his life that led him into a dangerous and precarious world’.
At that a number of mourners raised their voices in anger, during the solemn Mass, one shouting: ‘That’s enough.’
However, Fr Halpin was supported by members of Mr Nugent’s own family, who insisted that he should be allowed to continue speaking.
And last night the outspoken cleric
told the Irish Daily Mail that he had ‘no regrets’ about the stance he took, adding: ‘It is my job to stand up and speak the truth.’ He also said: ‘Yes, I got heckled. The reason I said what I said is because so many people in my parish have been affected by serious crime, innocent people and drugs victims.’
Mr Nugent was shot dead in Dublin earlier this month.
In his homily, Fr Halpin, from the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Rowlagh, Clondalkin, asked: ‘Who is responsible for us being here today?’ He continued that is was a ‘small-minded person’ who had ‘ordered the hit’.
The outspoken cleric then proceeded to lay some blame at the door of the murdered man, adding: ‘But Darragh did make bad, bad decisions, and those decisions and actions contributed.’
‘Darragh did make bad, bad decisions’ ‘It is my job to speak the truth’
It was then that a number of people vocally objected, heckling him.
They also raised their voices to object at other points in the funeral homily.
One mourner in the congregation shouted out: ‘That’s enough,’ and: ‘This is supposed to be a celebration of Darragh’s life.’
However, the heckling prompted some members of Mr Nugent’s family to call out that the priest should be allowed continue as ‘he has to do what he has to do’.
Fr Halpin told the Mail last night that he had no fears for his personal safety following his emotionally charged sermon.
The priest said he felt he had done the right thing by speaking out about the consequences of gangland violence and personal responsibility. He added that the predominant message from his sermon was that gangland criminality led to innocent lives being taken.
Fr Halpin told the Mail: ‘If some people don’t like it, I’m not sure what I can do. I do not want evil to win out.’
Asked if he had been warned over his personal safety by gardaí following his comments the cleric said he had not.
He continued: ‘I have no regrets over what I said. It was true. No, I’ve no fears for my personal safety. I did the right thing.’
After he said, in his ceremony, that Mr Nugent had made bad decisions, he added: ‘That is not to say that he deserved what happened to him, nobody deserves to die in such an undignified way.’
He added: ‘The responsibility for Darragh’s death– and also John Gibson, who was similarly murdered last Monday night, another young man who has left behind young children, mowed down exactly a week after Darragh, and indeed the many, many others who have similarly come to a tragic end – the responsibility also lies further afield. Every person who takes drugs bears some of the responsibility. Every single person who pays for illegal drugs bears some of the responsibility for us being here today.’
Mr Nugent, a father-of-three, was shot dead outside his home on Wheatfield Avenue in Clondalkin on Monday, September 11. The 36-year-old was shot dead a week before his close friend John Gibson, 28, was murdered in Tallaght last Monday as part of the same west Dublin drugs dispute.
Gardaí believe both murders were carried out by the same rival gang whose leader is a convicted crack cocaine dealer.
Mr Nugent was well-known to gardaí, and detectives believe his killers were lying in wait for him before they targeted him outside his home.
Senior security sources last night told the Mail they would closely monitor if any threats emerged against the priest in the coming days and weeks.
At the funeral, Mr Nugent’s son and daughter made emotional speeches about their late father. Comment – Page 14 ali.bracken@dailymail.ie