The mood in a cold and grey Ballymun, north Dublin was captured on the faces of sobbing teenage boys and girls who had come to remember one of their own.
Josh Dunne was stabbed in East Wall on Dublin’s north side on Tuesday night, leaving the 16-year-old’s family shattered and his many friends and soccer teammates numbed.
A crowd of at least 800 people gathered from 3pm in Coultry Green in Ballymun on Thursday, including his mother Diane who was surrounded by his soccer club teammates.
The crowd released hundreds of balloons in his honour; most of them orange and black, the colours of St Kevin’s Boys where, by all accounts, Josh was a star.
As those present at the remembrance event shivered in the cold and rain, a music system played songs chosen by the young people from the area; Ghetto Gospel by Tupac, Brother by Kodeline and Alaphville’s Forever Young.
Efforts by some of his friends to fight back tears were unsuccessful and soon a large number of boys around Josh’s age were comforting each other in the middle of the crowd. Some wore T-shirts featuring a picture of the dead boy playing in the colours of Bohemian FC, where he spent a stint in 2019.
Others were dressed in St Kevin’s tracksuits and burned orange flares in the middle of the crowd. There was little appetite to speak to the media, or at least to do so on the record. The publication of photos of Tuesday’s crime scene in the media had angered some of his friends.
A statement issued by Josh’s family described him as “an amazing, happy and talented boy who was tragically taken from our lives at just 16 years old”.
“Josh’s smile lit up every room he walked into and he had a promising career ahead of him on the football pitch,” his family said.
They thanked the community in Ballymun for their support and asked the media “to let us grieve in peace”, adding they would “always remember our Josh as a happy, caring and amazing boy” and a “dreamer”.
Mark Tierney, Josh’s team’s manager, spoke to The Irish Times on behalf of St Kevin’s. He said everyone was “absolutely devastated” when news filtered through that Josh had been killed.
“He was such a good young fella,” Mr Tierney said. “And, you know, he would have been training on Tuesday night only for Covid-19, and that’s the really sad part for me.”
He added around the time Josh was fatally wounded at 9.20pm on East Road, East Wall, Dublin 3, on Tuesday he would normally have been cycling home after training ended at 9pm.
“His team mates are all gathered here now and they are heartbroken, you can see that yourself. They knew him since he was a kid; they went through different schools and teams with him. He was just the idol of the group, an outstanding kid,” Mr Tierney said.
“He signed for St Kevin’s when he was 14 years old; I signed him in. He was in the team for a season and he done excellently. And then he progressed into the Bohemian’s section of the club, the League of Ireland section.”
After a period of just over six months Josh preferred to return to St Kevin’s and the team was determined, until the pandemic derailed their activities, to help him develop and settle with a view to going back to the higher level at Bohemians.
“We were just getting him ready for that push into the U17s League of Ireland and he’d gotten trials at Dundee United. You could see he had that potential and he would have gotten that second chance to make the step up.
“He was very talented; a winger who could play in the striker position as well. He had real pace, great touches, all the abilities you need. He could score goals with his right foot, left foot, his head. He was a fantastic player.”
The Garda investigation into Josh’s killing is continuing and gardaí believe he was stabbed after intervening in a row when two delivery cyclists tried to stop another man stealing a bicycle in East Wall on Tuesday night.
