Murdered Coolock drug dealer buried

THE PARENTS of murdered drug dealer John Paul Joyce had been “plunged into darkness” for a second time following the murder of their younger son Tommie last June, the priest concelebrating Joyce’s funeral told mourners yesterday.

Fr Derek Farrell said Sonny and Lilly Joyce were being helped through their grief by their strong faith in God.

He said Joyce’s partner, Leah Murphy, and his two children, Bonnie and Joe-John, had been robbed of a fiance and father by an act of violence.

Joyce’s death at the age of just 30 was shocking and had added to the family’s already considerable grief following the shooting dead of Tommie Joyce (20) outside his Coolock home last June.

Fr Farrell, the parish priest to the Traveller community, was addressing about 300 mourners at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Ashbourne, Co Meath.

The dead man’s sister Anne said her brother was a fitness fanatic who took great pride in his appearance. “We loved you more than we will ever be able to say. He loved all of us, his brothers and sisters, in his own special way.”

There was a heavy Garda presence outside the church, including uniformed gardaí and armed detectives, as Joyce’s remains were taken by horse-drawn hearse to a local cemetery for burial.

Joyce, from the Grove Lane halting site on Malahide Road, Coolock, was found shot dead in a laneway at the back of Dublin airport last Saturday.His body was lying in a flooded ditch. He had been shot five times in the head.