The most disturbing liturgy I’ve attended
Priest who was at criminal’s funeral:
A PARISH priest has described the funeral for one of the three men killed in a road crash last week as the ‘most disturbing liturgy I was ever at’.
Chaotic scenes, in which a small number of mourners for Dean Maguire, 29, blocked off roads and intimidated members of the public on the way to St Mary’s Priory church in Tallaght on Friday, have sparked widespread outrage.
Mr Maguire was killed, alongside his friends Graham Taylor, 31, and Carl Freeman, 26, on June 6 when
‘There was a sense of restlessness’
the car they were travelling in crashed into a truck on the N7.
The men, who had over 200 convictions between them and were part of a notorious criminal gang, had been travelling purposely on the wrong side of the road to avoid being captured by gardaí.
During the funeral service for the father-of-two, friends of the ‘career criminal’ placed a torch and screwdriver as remembrance gifts beside his coffin.
A professionally printed banner featuring his face on the altar also read: ‘You know the score, get on the floor, don’t be funny, show me the money.’
Speaking to Joe Duffy on RTÉ’s Liveline, Fr Donal Roche, who was present at the funeral of Maguire but not officiating, condemned the glorification of criminality at funerals.
In a statement, the priest said An Garda Síochána were called as more mourners were crowding into the church, far exceeding the 50-person limit.
However, he was told that a Garda presence would add to the tension and gardaí would only attend if there was a reported act of criminality.
‘It was the most disturbing liturgy I have ever been at. There was a sense of restlessness, and the priest officiating was up against it,’ he said.
Fr Roche added that he was at the back of the church making sure numbers were controlled. However, when his back was turned more people flooded in.
Mourners broke the tape that had been put on the pews to indicate that no one should sit there.
In 2019, former Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin pledged that career criminals would not be allowed to exploit church funerals to ‘enhance their image’.
He warned that those involved in crime would not be allowed to use religious ceremonies as a way to glorify associated criminals.
The Archbishop said criminals should go for civil funerals rather than use any Church setting for showy displays and that the parish will insist the service is a simple and modest affair.
Current Archbishop Dermot Farrell refused to comment on the Dean Maguire service. In a statement to Liveline, he said: ‘In a Christian funeral we commend the soul of the deceased to the mercy of God.
‘Out of respect for the family and loved ones of the deceased it would not be appropriate to publicly comment on an individual funeral ceremony.
‘Please be advised the parish is not responsible for activities outside the church.’
Meanwhile, Liveline caller Michela Sheehan said: ‘I feel so sorry for any priest that finds themselves dealing with this sort of a problem.’
‘Something will have to be done, it’s alright for Dermot Martin to come out and say his statement about not glorifying criminality but then you’ve got to do something about it and put structures in place.’
Maguire was described in court several years ago as being part of ‘a highly sophisticated, organised crime gang’. At the time of his
‘Glorifying criminality’
death, he was wanted by UK police after fleeing from prison in 2018.
Yesterday, the last of the three dead men, Carl Freeman, was buried in Newlands Cemetery following a ceremony in St Aidan’s Church in Jobstown, Dublin.
In 2017, Freeman received a five-year sentence in relation to an aggravated burglary in Co. Wicklow.
At the time, Judge Martin Nolan described him as a ‘menace to society’ following the 2013 burglary which left 77-year-old Dublin woman, Kathleen Crean, traumatised and unable to continue living in her own home.
She died in 2017. Videos of Freeman’s funeral procession yesterday morning show a horse-drawn hearse travelling to Saint Aidan’s Church in Jobstown, accompanied by his friends on scrambler bikes.