Horrific and unbearable
Alan O’neill was killed in his garden THE mother of a man shot dead in his front garden told a court she will never understand why her “gentle giant” was murdered.
Doris O’neill made the claim as Warren Nolan, 22, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her son Alan in 2015.
The thug was 18 when he shot the 35-year-old at Kiltalown Road in Tallaght, South Dublin, in an attack that was planned over several days.
Justice Paul Mcdermott also sentenced Nolan to six years in jail for setting a getaway car on fire.
The defendant was found guilty of Alan’s murder by a majority jury verdict in December.
Doris told how losing her first-born in such a dreadful way was “horrific, traumatising, devastating, unbearable and unforgettable.”
She said: “I will never understand why anyone would want to hurt him, and maybe I will never know. Heaven has gained an earth angel that gained his wings. We will forever by heartbroken.”
During the trial Alan’s partner Michelle Usher said she was in her living room when she saw him park his car on the driveway.
She then saw a “dark figure” come into the garden and shoot the victim.
Ms Usher caught hold of her partner and brought him in the doorway while another shot smashed the window of the hall door. Alan’s step-daughter Chantelle Usher said the shooting happened 10 days before she began her Leaving Cert exams.
She added: “The hardest thing I had to do was leave the funeral home and sit my exams when all I wanted was to spend every moment available saying goodbye.
“I felt I owed it to Alan as he spent the last year of his life dropping me to grinds, helping me study and ensuring I got all the rest and good food I needed in the lead-up to my orals and exams.”
Chantelle added her step-dad’s priority had always been to “love and protect us”.
She said: “He knew when we needed a hug before we knew ourselves and was able to deal with anything we threw his way.”
Det Gda Conor Harrison told the court Nolan has 24 previous convictions including one for possession of a firearm in suspicious circumstances for which he was sentenced to five years imprisonment in 2015, two weeks after Alan’s murder.
State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy told the trial the victim died from a bullet wound that went through his forearm and into his side, damaging the body’s main blood vessel and puncturing the liver.
I will never understand & never know why anyone would want to hurt him DORIS O’NEILL
YESTERDAY