Priest calls for calm at removal

The family of the young Sligo man, murdered outside his parents' home earlier this week, have been urged to remain calm in the face of "great provocation".

Making a special plea at the removal of the remains of 23-year-old Tom Ward from Cranmore, local priest Fr Steve Walsh said too much blood had already been spilled in the neighbourhood. Mr Ward, who was married with a two-year-old daughter, died after being struck in the back of the head with a hatchet early last Monday morning.

Fr Walsh told the 300 or so mourners at St Anne's Church, Sligo, that the nature of the "cowardly act" ensured the family had to wait for four days for the law to take its course before they could grieve over their son's body. He urged that the men of the Ward family remain cool and calm "in this difficult situation and in the face of great provocation" not just for themselves but for the sake of their children and families. "In this neighbourhood too much blood has already been spilled," said Fr Walsh.

"Too many women have been widowed, too many children have been orphaned, too many fathers have had to carry fine sons to their graves and too many mothers have had too look into their children's coffins, God's creation disfigured by violent death." Fr Walsh expressed the sympathy of the parish to Mr Ward's heartbroken young wife Cliona, his parents Tom and Brigid, his daughter and his "bewildered" family. "Your pain and loss is great indeed, so much so that it cannot be measured," he told the family.

The priest assured Mr Ward's relatives that they had the sympathy and the prayers of the community as they attempted to carry the very heavy cross which had been "laid so unjustly on your shoulders". Mr Ward's remains were released from Sligo hospital yesterday for removal to Tubbercurry, where his parents came from. As the funeral procession returned to Sligo it paused briefly outside his Cranmore home, near to the scene of Monday's violent attack.

There was a heavy but low-key Garda presence in Tubbercurry and Sligo throughout yesterday's removal.

Mr Ward will be laid to rest in Ballymote Cemetery today following a funeral Mass at St Anne's in Sligo.