This is the desperately sad story of a decent Limerick family whose lives have been wrecked by the psychopathic gangsters who ordered the murder of an innocent man, because the Collins family dared to do their civic duty and stood up to a gang who be
lieve they can operate far beyond the law.
Last week, on the Childers Road, Roy Collins and his son Stephen were threatened in a manner that almost defied belief. Almost, but not quite, for it has long been clear that we are cursed to have among us some of the most dangerous and odious criminals this country has ever known.
Mr Collins Snr described a scene where, firstly, his son was told he was "next to get it", and then up to 25 thugs climbed a wall carrying sticks, chains and bottles and attacked the car he was driving.
"The State needs to react to this: by doing what they did to Roy, they put it up to the State," Stephen Collins has said. He is emphatically correct.
We all know that what happened to Shane Geoghegan and Roy Collins could happen to any one of us. The Collins family intends, next month, to hold a march against criminality in our city and has asked that marchers wear red to show their unity – and their anger. We hope Limerick people will get behind this most brave of local families.
They deserve our support: they have suffered dreadfully for trying to do what was right. The are living in fear and the pain they feel now will never really go away.
Dozens of obnoxious, drug-dealing criminals have been put behind bars by Limerick gardai, but the chilling reality is that there appears to be no shortage of replacements. This is the most difficult of the massive tasks faced by the Regenerations Agencies: to target the young before it is too late, before they succumb to the perceived glamour of being foot soldiers in the gangs.
That challenge has never seemed as difficult as it does now– and no matter the state of the public finances, it has never been more important to meet it decisively.
Two weeks ago, this column set out our position on the urgent need for new legislation to secure convictions against gangland crimes, allied to increased resources for gardai in Limerick to use covert surveilliance to secure convictions.
A Limerick Leader online poll that same week, asking if tougher laws need to be introduced urgently to tackle the monsters who have shamed our city, produced by far the most emphatic result of any poll conducted by this newspaper: 99 per cent agreement. Courage beyond words led Stephen Collins, Roy's father, to proclaim that he and his family would stand up again to the gang that gardai believe are responsible for ordering this brutal murder.
Few of us have that courage – but no ordinary person should be put in the position whereby convictions stand or fall on their evidence, not when they are being asked to testify against depraved and violent criminals.
We await the newlegislation and we fervently hope that all resources necessary will be provided to take on and defeat these gangs.
