SECURITY WAS tight in Limerick yesterday for the funeral of local criminal Philip Collopy. The 29-year-old father of two died after accidentally shooting himself in the head with a Glock pistol at a house in St Mary’s Park last weekend.
Gardaí believe the father of two was showing others how to use the gun and took the magazine out, but forgot to remove the live round from the breach when he shot himself in the head.
Armed members of the Garda Regional Support Unit were on duty outside St Mary’s Church yesterday where the funeral Mass took place.
About 300 people attended the service yesterday, after which the 29-year-old’s bronze-coloured aluminium casket was removed on a horse-drawn carriage. A young boy on a piebald pony rode alongside the funeral cortege, while a photograph of Mr Collopy with his horse was placed beside his casket in the church.
A Toyota pick-up truck draped in a Tricolour and filled with floral arrangements led the funeral cortege. A stuffed pheasant and dozens of flower arrangements including one in the shape of a horse’s head was placed on the roof of the truck.
A message which accompanied one of the floral tributes read “Sadly missed, never forgotten” and was signed “Slashook”.
During the funeral Mass, Declan Sheehy spoke of Philip Collopy’s love of “horses, goats and chickens” and said he would never get over the death of his best friend. “Obviously his family are heartbroken and will never get over it. I’m his best pal and I know I’ll never get over it. I’ll never forget you, Phil,” he said.
In his homily, Fr Donough O’Malley said the human condition was “full of contrasts . . . joy and sorrow, grace and sin, sickness and health, life and death”.
He said Philip Collopy’s death which took place on a weekend of huge sporting success demonstrated the “contrasts that are taking place about us”.
A large number of people including many of Philip Collopy’s brothers chose to walk the five-mile journey behind the funeral cortege, which travelled through O’Connell Street in Limerick city centre before making its way along the Dock Road to Castlemungret Cemetery. At the graveside about 14 doves and pigeons were released into the air as the coffin was lowered into the ground.
Well known to gardaí in Limerick, Philip Collopy had recently told a court that his life was constantly under threat and said he regularly wore a bullet-proof vest for his own protection.
A criminal with over 20 convictions, he was a leading member of the Keane/Collopy criminal gang which has been involved in the ongoing feud with the McCarthy/Dundon faction.
On the night that Kieran Keane was killed in January 2003, members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang tried to lure Philip Collopy and his brother Kieran to a meeting so that they could be shot dead with Keane.
Philip Collopy had recently been targeted by the Criminal Assets Bureau, which seized a house, two cars and a substantial amount of cash from members of his family.