Funeral of Michael Dwyer held

The funeral of Michael Dwyer (24), who was shot dead by police in Bolivia earlier this month has taken place in Co Tipperary.

He was buried in the village of Terryglass, close to his family home at Ballinderry on the northern shores of Lough Derg.

At Requiem Mass in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, parish priest Fr Michael Cooney described him as "a loving son". Mr Dwyer's mother Caroline, father Martin, sisters Aisling (25) and Ciara (21), and brother Emmet (14) were joined by hundreds of mourners.

The Mass, which featured hymns in Irish, English and Latin, was relayed via loudspeakers to an overflow crowd and a large media contingent gathered in a churchyard warmed by spring sunshine.

Fr Cooney said Mr Dwyer's "tragic" death was "an awful, awful cross" which had "shattered" his family.

Offertory gifts reflecting Mr Dwyer's interests – a hurley, a picture of his Toyota Levin car, his honours degree in construction management from the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and a family photograph.- had been brought to the altar earlier by family members. The coffin was borne from the church for a private burial in the adjoining graveyard.

Family, friends and neighbours attended his removal last night from a funeral home in Nenagh.

It is expected that an inquest into Mr Dwyer's death will eventually be held.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has called for an international investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr Dwyer's death.

The Bolivian government has claimed that he was involved in a plot to assassinate the country's president, Evo Morales. However, Mr Dwyer's parents have vehemently denied the allegation.

The prosecutor in charge of the case is expected to report the initial findings of his investigation shortly with opposition sources in Santa Cruz saying they expect local leaders to be called in for questioning.

In an interview on Tuesday night with a local television station, Rafaela Cotrin, a Brazilian studying medicine in the eastern Bolivian city, who claims shewas Mr Dwyer's girlfriend, said he told her he was in the country working as a bodyguard for Eduardo Rózsa Flores, one of the two other men shot dead by police at a hotel in Santa Cruz in the early hours of April 16th.

In a video recorded in Hungary last year and released after his death, Mr Flores, a Bolivian of Hungarian descent who also held Croatian citizenship after serving in a Croat militia during the Balkans conflict, said he had been invited to go to Santa Cruz to set up self-defence groups to take on government supporters.