The front-page article, written by Jim Cusack, suggested that a man armed with an automatic handgun had "set out to avenge the death of Cronin" at the April 11 funeral, and that "garda intelligence" had thwarted a potential attack at Mount St Oliver cemetery.

However, this has been rejected by Chief Superintendent Willie Keane, head of the Limerick garda division, who told the Limerick Leader that no such operation or arrest took place.

Chief Supt Keane said that while there was a firearm seizure in the city the previous Thursday night, gardai have not linked it to any potential attack at the funeral of James Cronin.

He described the Sunday Independent story as "wild speculation", and when asked if he felt the article was attempting to mis-represent the problem of violent crime in Limerick, Chief Supt Keane said that "there is an element of that."

The article has also been criticised by Mary Dundon, spokesperson for the Limerick Co-ordination Office. Ms Dundon accused the Sunday Independent of failing to meet basic standards of reporting: "The first principle of journalism is that you check your facts. This article gives the impression that a gunman was stopped at the entrance to the funeral, but senior gardai I have spoken to have no knowledge of any operation at the cemetery. Jim Cusack is a respected security journalist, but this story is without foundation," she said.


"It's more sensationalised reporting not based on fact. The print media have no redress from this kind of reporting. There is no source quoted, which is one of the basic principles of journalism. The story and the headline give a seriously false impression of something which did not even happen."

The body of the 20-year-old Mr Cronin was found in a shallow grave near Caledonian Park on April 7. Gardai believe that Mr Cronin was involved in the murder of 40-year-old Mark Moloney in Garryowen on April 5, and that he may have been executed to prevent him from revealing details of the murder to gardai.