COMMUNITY LEADERS in Co Mayo expressed shock and dismay at the fatal stabbing of Francis Heneghan.
Expressing sympathy for the victim’s family, local parish priest Fr Paddy Kilcoyne said it was hard to believe such a crime could happen in a town like Kiltimagh.
“It certainly was not expected. Unfortunately we hear it almost every day of the week in other places and it has happened here today and it is very sad,” he said.
“We hope the gardaí will be able to come to some conclusion as to what happened and bring those responsible to justice.”
Ger Deere, a Fine Gael councillor who knows the Heneghans, said the area had been stunned by the death, coming four days after a garda was injured in a stabbing in the nearby town of Westport.
“The family were very well known and highly respected in the area,” Mr Deere said. “The community is numbed by this. It’s an awful tragedy . . . It’s totally unusual of Mayo to have an incident like that, two within a couple of days.”
Fine Gael councillor Eugene Lavin, who lives close to where the attack took place, said: “I was in town early this morning and shock would be the best way to describe it . . . That’s the situation that confronts us in this small town of 1,100 people in the west of Ireland, something that you wouldn’t expect to find or hear.”
Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd claimed the two stabbings highlighted the Government’s inability to crack down on knife crime.
“The only way to reduce knife crime offences is to tighten the law, use its provisions and resource the gardaí. So far, the Government has failed to do all of this and a massive hike in stabbings has been the result,” he said.