Murder victim’s death ‘a shocking why without an answer’

Mourners holding candles lined the narrow road that led into the Church of Our Lady Mother of the Church in Dublin tonight as murdered Dublin man Tom O'Gorman was carried inside.

The crowd of hundreds followed the flower-laden coffin and packed out the small Castleknock church for the ceremony.

Mr O’Gorman, a minister of the Eucharist who was involved in a number of Catholic groups and campaigns, was found dead at his home in Castleknock in the small hours of Sunday, January 12th.

Fr John McNerney, chaplain of UCD where Mr O’Gorman had studied, said Tom’s family and the whole community were “in total shock at this heartbreak”.

“For us all, especially his family, Tom’s own death has been a shocking why without an answer,” he said.

Fr McNerney and Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin Raymond Field were among nine clergy on the altar, while other members of the clergy sat in the body of the church.

The chief mourners were Mr O’Gorman’s brother and sister Paul and Catherine O’Gorman. Representatives of the Iona Institute, led by director David Quinn, were also in attendance, as was Senator Ronan Mullen and staff from the Catholic Communications Office.

A folk group sang Ma Toute Belle during the service, based on the Song of Songs from the old testament and harps accompanied Sé an Tiarna m'aoire, based on Psalm 23. A bible was placed on Mr O'Gorman's coffin and nearby a table bore a framed photograph of him.

Fr McNerney said Mr O’Gorman wanted to bring about the realisation of the Gospel “personally, socially and politically”. He worked with the Iona Institute, with young people and with the pro-life movement, as well as being a minister of the Eucharist, he said.

“Tom was given only 39 years to live, but in that one life he lived more than many of us would live in two lives,” he said.

He described Mr O’Gorman as “essentially a people person” and said the “inner thirst of his life was for the rich network of relationships he built with so many”.

“It doesn’t remove the deep pain we all felt at the horror of how we left us, but I think Tom himself would have suggested to us to see behind the horror, the horror of Jesus himself who experienced a death and psychological forsakenness which alone could match Tom’s own suffering,” he said.

The funeral Mass for Mr O’Gorman will take place tomorrow morning at 11.30am.