The mother of a boy killed by a drunk Irish rugby star made a heartbreaking plea for the return of Limerick hurling gnome ornaments that were removed from her son’s grave for the second time in a few weeks.
Avid Limerick hurling supporter Kate Tierney Walsh, Bruff, Co Limerick, also pleaded with “whoever is doing it, please stop”.
The Co Limerick mother’s son, Kevin Walsh, (16), who was a Limerick GAA and Liverpool FC superfan, was killed outright when a Land Rover ploughed into the back of his uncle Vincent Tierney’s stationary BMW in which he was a passenger, on April 1, 2006.
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The car pulled in on the side of the road near Toomevara as Kevin’s uncles Vincent and Declan came upon loose cattle on the road.
Former Munster, Ireland and London-Irish flanker, Eddie Halvey, who was drunk behind the wheel of the jeep, was given a suspended seven-month sentence and a seven-year driving ban after he pleaded guilty before Nenagh Circuit Court to careless-driving and drink-driving following a road crash.
Halvey, then 35, of Allendale Hall, South Circular Road, Limerick, and, who was twice over the legal alcohol limit, had previously been charged with dangerous driving causing Kevin Walsh’s death, however difficulties arose with forensic evidence and the Director of Public Prosecutions accepted lesser charges of careless driving and drink-driving.
Gardai told a subsequent inquest into the teenager’s death, held in March 2010, that Halvey was slurring his words, was unsteady on his feet, and that he had given gardai two different versions of what led up to the collision.
Kate Tierney Walsh posted photographs of the missing Limerick gnomes on her son’s grave at Knockainey Cemetery which she had taken after four more were stolen along with two Liverpool footballs she had left at her son’s grave a few weeks ago.
“To say I’m upset is an understatement, I went today to cut the grass at my son Kevin’s grave as usual and to find that a person or persons had taken the Limerick Gnomes off my son’s grave...feeling heartbroken,” she wrote.
“17 years doing up the grave and I’m sickened to think there are people out there doing this, they took 3 Limerick hurling gnomes and 1 soccer gnome — whoever is doing it please STOP.”
“It’s enough having to go to his grave besides some low-life stealing from it. Some of these things are not replaceable, I hope whoever took them won’t have an ounce of luck for doing it.”
When contacted for comment, Kevin Walsh’s uncle, Declan Tierney, said he hoped that by highlighting the theft it might prevent it from happening again.
“Kate, the poor crater, she’s devastated, if you ever saw the grave, she keeps it so well, she’s incredible the way she keeps going, it’s not easy on anyone of us, but we have to do our best to keep going,” Mr Tierney said.
Mr Tierney thanked “wonderful” Limerick hurling supporters who had offered to provide them with replacement gnomes.
Pleading for Kevin’s grave to be left alone, Mr Tierney said: “Let the dead rest, Kevin is resting in peace there for the past 17 years, leave him rest and leave his mother alone, she has had enough heartache in her.”
Earlier, Mr Tierney broke down when telling the Limerick Today programme on his local radio station Live 95: “It’s very hard to understand how people can do these things, that they have the audacity to steal things from a grave - especially a child’s grave.”
“This brings it all back to each and everyone of us, seventeen years later and we are still heartbroken, myself and Vincent took Kevin for a drive and we never brought him home.”
“I can’t look at my sister because we took her son, her little fella, and we didn’t bring him home, and she has to go to a grave which has been destructed by people, it’s so heartbreaking.”
“They should be ashamed of themselves.”
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