A PRIEST has spoken of how the family of the man shot dead by the Real IRA on the outskirts of Derry on Wednesday night were suffering “terrible anguish and pain”.
Fr Roland Colhoun, administrator of Long Tower parish, said he was to have officiated at the wedding of Kieran Doherty in June.
“Kieran and his fiancée Mairéad were full of excitement about their forthcoming wedding. A lot of preparation goes into a matrimonial ceremony, now we are preparing for a requiem ceremony.
“I spent all day yesterday comforting the family. I spoke to the entire extended family which includes 52 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren. They are a very close family and are in solidarity with one another at this difficult time. The sheer trauma of what has happened is just too much for many of them. There is such grief, tears, questions and anguish and it is a terribly onerous task to try to console them.
“My experience of Kieran was that he was a very mannerly fellow, courteous and cheerful,” Fr Colhoun added. “He was a human being and everyone deserves their dignity and freedom. No one deserves to die in such circumstances.”
Mr Doherty (31), the father of a two-year-old girl, was found naked and bound at Braehead Road on Wednesday night. He had been shot several times in the head and chest. He was a member of the Real IRA, the dissident republican group which has admitted responsibility for his death.
In a statement, the Real IRA said Mr Doherty “was a senior member of our organisation who was executed because he became involved with a criminal gang with links to the drugs trade. He knew the risks involved in what he was doing.”
Mr Doherty’s home at Coshowen in Bishop Street was searched by the PSNI last month following the discovery of €500,000 worth of cannabis plants at a house he had rented on behalf of an associate in Carrigans, Co Donegal. Mr Doherty had met the associate while both were prisoners in Portlaoise.
Mr Doherty claimed last November that MI5 had tried to recruit him as an informer when he was on a business trip in England.
His body was removed from the scene on Thursday night to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for a postmortem.
PSNI detectives carried out extensive forensic searches yesterday in the area where Mr Doherty’s body was found. Detectives are trying to establish if he was shot at the scene. Ballistics examinations will also be carried out to establish if the weapon used to kill him had been used in previous incidents.
Bishop of Derry Dr Séamus Hegarty said the murder flew “in the face of the teaching of Christ and is a profound rejection of all that is Christian”.
Sinn Féin MLA Martina Anderson said the family had asked to be allowed to grieve in private.
Meanwhile, a candlelit vigil for peace was held at Newry Town Hall last night in protest against the dissident republican bombing of Newry courthouse on Monday night.
The threat level rises from dissident republican groups: Weekend Review, page 2