Funeral of Garda Kevin Flatley to take place on Friday
The funeral mass for
Garda Kevin Flatley, who died when he was struck by a motorcyclist while conducting a speed checkpoint at Lissenhall near Swords on Sunday afternoon, will take place on Friday.
The mass will take place at St Peter and Paul's Church, Balbriggan, Co Dublin at 1.30pm and will be followed by a family burial in Newcastle, Co Dublin.
It will be broadcast live on large screens outside the church, and will also be streamed live by An Garda Síochána on the force's Facebook page, starting at around 1.15pm.
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A number of traffic restriction will be in place in the area on Friday.
Parking in the vicinity of St Peter and Paul's church will be very limited, according to gardaí, and the carpark beside the church will not be available as it will be required to facilitate overflow from the church.
The funeral cortege will travel from McNally's Funeral Home, Drogheda Street, Balbriggan to St Peter and Paul's Church on Friday, May 16th ahead of the funeral mass.
To facilitate this, the main street through Balbriggan, R132 - Drogheda Street through Bridge Street and Dublin Street - will be closed to all traffic for a period from 12pm until after the funeral services. Diversions will be in place.
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Parking restrictions will also be in place on the main street through Balbriggan from Thursday, May 15th, 2025.
People have been asked to follow the advice and direction of stewards and gardaí working in the vicinity of St Peter and Paul's Church, and have been advised to use public transport.
Balbriggan train station is a 15 minute walk from St Peter and Paul's Church and less than a five minute walk from McNally's Funeral Home.
Gardaí also said it is anticipated that there will be additional traffic and pedestrian activity in the vicinity of McNallys Funeral Home, Drogheda Street, Balbriggan on the evening of Thursday, May 15th from 4pm.
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His status was only upgraded to official suspect in the last two years. The arrest was the first made in the case and came after officials took a statement from a 'close associate' of the suspect. The associate remains 'of interest' to the overall investigation, according to The Irish Independent. Gardaí reportedly believe the two men were together on the weekend Annie went missing and there are now questions over their alibi. The Irish Sun also revealed police seized a number of electronic devices, including laptops and phones, at the suspect's home on Thursday morning. Officers cordoned off and searched a house in Clondalkin, southwest Dublin, as part of the murder inquiry. The current occupants of the house have no connection to the case. Gardaí brought a cadaver dog, who is trained to detect signs of human remains, into the search at the rear of the property where excavation work had taken place. The man who was arrested for questioning was flagged to officers as a possible suspect immediately after the New Yorker's disappearance in 1993. Annie's friends claimed they were concerned about the man as she had told them she felt 'pressured and harassed' by him - and claimed he had hit her on one occasion. They alleged he became fixated on the belief that Annie was involved with a man who was well-known to him and he became jealous. However, they believed that the information they provided was mishandled and not adequately considered during the initial inquiry. According to The Irish Sun, Gardaí are planning to re-interview former colleagues of the businessman after concerns were raised about his alibi on the day Annie went missing. A source told the publication: 'Any evidence at the moment is just circumstantial. 'One strand is that one of the suspect's former colleagues had concerns about his lack of empathy after Annie's disappearance. 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The last known CCTV footage of Annie shows the missing woman queuing in the Allied Irish Bank on Sandymount Road shortly before 11am on the morning of her disappearance. In the clip, can be seen wearing a longline coat and her leather bag is hanging off one shoulder. Because the bag was never found, investigators believe the unknown assailant may have chosen to keep the item. Detective Superintendent Eddie Carroll urged people who may know anything about the whereabouts of Annie's bag to speak with officers. 'I am appealing to those persons, 30 years later, to please come forward and speak to the investigation team,' he said during the conference. 'I want to speak with any person who has any information on the large brown handbag which it is believed that Annie was in possession of when she went missing.' He also urged anyone who had spoken to, or had any interaction with Annie around the time of her disappearance to come forward. 'I want to speak to any person who met, spoke with or had any interaction with Annie McCarrick on the 26th March 1993 or subsequently,' he said. 'There is a person or persons, who have information on the disappearance of Annie McCarrick and her murder on or about the 26th March 1993 and who haven't yet spoken to Gardaí or who may have already spoken to Gardaí but were not in a position to tell everything that they know at that time.' Annie McCarrick was born in Long Island but moved to Ireland in 1987 and began studying in Dublin. She went back to America in 1990 to get a master's degree, but returned to Ireland in January 1993 to settle. During an interview in 2016, her mother Nancy told RTÉ's Crimecall programme: 'When she found Ireland, her whole life really changed.' On March 26 1993, Annie left her apartment in Dublin to spend the day at Wicklow Mountains, going alone after inviting a friend to go with her. 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In July 2020, Michael Griffith, a lawyer her father John hired in 1993, now joined forces with Kenneth Strange, a former FBI agent, and Annie's uncle, John Covell, as well as an Irish private investigator, Brian McCarthy, to try to solve the mystery of what happened to Annie. The American team came up with the theory that Annie was not at Johnnie Fox's Pub, in the village of Glencullen, as previously believed. Instead, they have identified a new 'prime suspect' after becoming aware of a witness statement given to Gardaí in 1993. Mr McCarthy said they had identified a new suspect whom they think Annie was with in a café in Enniskerry. The witness, who has since died, alleged that Annie had been in the café with a man who fit the description of a suspect McCarthy has identified. Mr McCarthy called the sighting 'more crucial than initially thought'. There have been several attempts to uncover the person behind Annie's disappearance. Gardaí have carried out extensive investigations into the disappearances but so far have had no breakthrough in solving them. In 2008, the Garda brought a team of FBI agents to Ireland to review the evidence they had accumulated. These experienced profilers, who specialise in investigating serial killers in the United States, concluded that the unknown killer matched the profile of one Larry Murphy, who was jailed for the rape and attempted murder of a young woman in Carlow in 2001. Murphy had kidnapped the woman, put her in the boot of his car and taken her to the Wicklow Mountains where she was repeatedly raped. He then tried to strangle the victim to death but two hunters happened upon the scene, saved the woman, and helped identify Murphy as the attacker, leading to his arrest. Murphy has been questioned over the Vanishing Triangle cases but has always denied being connected with any of them. Meanwhile in 2014, retired detective sergeant Alan Bailey claimed that a member of the Provisional IRA may have killed Annie. At the time, he told RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke programme that the American student met the IRA man, to whom he gave a fictional name Manus Dunne, at Johnnie Fox's pub in Glencullen in the Dublin mountains. Mr Bailey said that he 'started bragging about different exploits', naming colleagues before 'realising the enormity of what he had done'. The retired detective sergeant wrote that Manus offered a lift into town but 'drove her up the mountains where he killed her and concealed her body behind some bushes'. He said the information from a 'very reliable source', was a story that 'needs to be checked out'. Meanwhile in 2018, police in Ireland began investigating whether a married father-of-two shot dead after murdering a student had been involved in Annie's killing. Mark Hennessy, 40, was killed by officers hunting for missing Jastine Valdez, 24, near Dublin in 2023 before her body was discovered. Garda sources told the Irish Times that Hennessy's DNA profile would be checked against historic and recent disappearances to see if he was a serial killer. As part of that review, officers reexamined the infamous Vanishing Triangle cases of the 1990s, where a series of young women disappeared without trace over the course of five years, to see if Hennnessy could be responsible. The victims include Annie McCarrick alongside Fiona Pender, Deirdre Jacob, Jo Jo Dullard, Fiona Sinnott, Eva Brennan and Ciara Breen. Hennessy would have been aged just 16 when Annie disappeared in 1993, but her case is still being included in the review. Former detective Alan Bailey, who investigated Annie's disappearance 30 years ago, has said that his 'one regret' is that he was never able to find out what happened to Annie and the other 'Vanishing Triangle' victims. What's more, the former detective said he is confident that Annie's murderer is still at large. He now believes the investigating team should speak with Murphy. The former detective claims he tried to interview Murphy while he was a prisoner at Arbour Hill - but the criminal refused. At the time, Bailey says they had to respect his decision not to be questioned - whereas officers are now able to get a court warrant to speak with prisoners. However, it has since been reported that Murphy did speak with officers as part of the ongoing 'Vanishing Triangle' investigations. In 2005, Murphy emerged as a 'person of interest' in the investigation into the murder of Deirdre Jacob. The 20-year-old, who had been studying in Twickenham, London, vanished outside of a post office - just yards from her parents house in Newbridge in 1998. 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Mr Malone also mentioned anti-immigrant activist Philp Dwyer, who drove to the scene in Carlow to film. "It was telling that Philip Dwyer was travelling back from an anti-migrant demonstration in Clonmel, heard there was something happening and landed up in Carlow, he describes himself as a 'citizen journalist'. Advertisement "He was quick on the scene. What he was pitching was 'I don't see any Irish people here, I don't see any white people here', literally after he interviewed a white Irish woman. "He's repeating these kinds of false narratives, openly lieng to the auidence, anyone can see the contradictions in what he's saying. I guess that's part and parcel of not being accountable to anyone, you can lie, contradict yourself, without consequences. "It's not like the base or his followers are interested in accuracy or truthfulness, it's more about virality and emotional content. The repetition of frames and narratives they want to push, regardless and completely independent of reality." He added: "Also telling was his approach to the Fire Service and An Garda Síochána at the scene. He started filming them and asked for information about the injuries, number of fatalities. The people on the ground probably didn't know what the details were at the time, and were reluctant to make any specific statements to a guy who evidently wasn't a journalist, was just some guy standing with a phone demanding information. When they made it clear they could not provide the information, Dwyer quickly moved to just verbally abusing them." Advertisement Mr Malone also pointed out that anti-migrant activists are often spreading misinformation with the aim of creating fear and division so that they can monetise it. They would see something like what happened in Carlow as an opportunity to insert themselves in public conversation and to push their own narratives. "Content that creates fear or posits a 'this is what happened' in an emergency situation, spreads fast. "If you have a blue tick and your account is monetised, you can get money for views on your content. "Derek Blighe and Philip Dwyer rarely post anything without asking their followers for money. Advertisement "Content that rallies emotions like fear, anger and disgust often leads to people sharing something without critically thinking or examining it. "This is why we often see false rumours about sexual violence or child abductions as a way of priming people to be afraid of Ipas centres. "They would see something like what happened in Carlow as an opportunity to insert themselves in public conversation and to push their own narratives. "There's no clarification or removing posts afterwards, they move quickly from spreading false information, claims that the shooter was a migrant or that it was an Islamic attack, when it became clear that this was an Irish person involved, they just stopped." An Garda Síochána posted regular updates about the incident, including one which clarified the gunman was a white Irishman. 'Frenzied misinformation' Mr Malone said this route made sense given the "frenzied misinformation" spreading online, however, he said it is unlikely to make any impact with those who follow the activists. "There was a small pause before they returned with 'why are they saying it's a white man?' "In fact it is actually their own cycle of disinformation and propaganda which forced An Garda Síochána to make that statement. "The number of statements from gardaí that day was rare, but it was needed to limit the spread of this frenzied misinformation online. "There are pros and cons, it's understandable why gardaí approached it that way given the rapid response of reactionary voices trying to frame it in a particular way. However, regardless of what is put out the far-right will still find ways to weaponise, argue, twist, misrepresent. "Those that are interested in pushing fear and division will continue to do so, the problem is they're allowed to lie, spread misinformation, be racist, incite violence and fear, without pushback. They're allowed to amass large followings and raise income from social media platforms even when they're clearly breaking the terms and conditions of the platforms themselves." Mr Malone recently published research into the violence in Ballymena , and identified a Facebook group that was actively encouraging people to attack individuals' homes. He pointed to this as an example of how social companies need to do more to target misinformation that poses real life danger to people. "We can see that in the context of Ballymena where we reported a Facebook page being used to organise pogroms on a street by street basis, Meta said it did not break their terms and conditions. "A lack of serious action by the platforms is a huge issue. While individuals need to be held accountable for what they're doing, these companies have billions at their disposal and are taking no action when their platform is contributing to people being burnt out of their houses. "Look at Facebook in Myanmar, a UN investigation found that Facebook was culpable in the face of a genocide in 2016, almost 10 years later people are being burnt out of their homes in Northern Ireland and it's being openly orchestrated on the platform." While there was no followup violence caused by the misinformation around the Carlow incident, social media played a big role in the Dublin riots in November 2023. Mr Malone said incidents like this are inevitable without serious action from the likes of Meta and X. Recommender systems The H&CC has long advocated for the removal of recommender systems from social media. These algorithms direct people to emotive content, much of which promotes violence and racism. "I think there's the inevitability rather than possibility that something bad will happen and that social media platforms will be playing a significant role in that, we're already seeing it. "That's why we would argue there neeeds to be serious political action around the platforms both in terms of giving clear effect to agreements under the Digital Services Act and the recommender systems. "Those mistruths that are being created as viral content are not just shown to the followers of the people posting it, the algorithms designed by the companies are there to recognise highly engaging emotional content and to spread it as far and wide as possible. "That's where anti-immigrant influencers are able to utilise the way the platforms work to spread their content, which has no factual basis to it. "There is probably a trade off being made given the amount of taxes the companies bring in, but you cannot relegate safety within our communities to the demands of platforms." He said "greater political will" is needed to address the negative impact of social media companies and their recommender systems. "Another striking thing is the number of times and the speed at which platforms can get access to the Government in terms of demanding meetings and how often those meetings are held behind closed doors, with ministers or Dáil committees. "These platforms are supposedly being held accountable, but these meetings are normally held outside of public scrutiny. That needs to end." Tánaiste Simon Harris and Taoiseach Micheál Martin have spoken out against the prominent use of tricolours at anti-immigrant and far-right demonstrations, which have been become more widespread in Dublin, Cork and towns across the country in recent years. Mr Malone said this attempt to link far-right ideas with Irish history is imported from similar movements in Europe, the UK and the US. People wave tricolours at an anti-immigrant protest in Dublin city centre "Much of what we hear coming from the mouths of the anti-immigrant movement in Ireland are reactionary British ideas with an Irish accent. "I'm not saying there has not been anti-immigrant sentiment in Ireland before, but it's very clear that the modus operandi, the phrases, the language and discourse, has a much greater relationship with English fascism and British nationalism than it does with any historical Irish nationalism or republicanism that has existed. "This handing out of flags is well funded and centrally organised, trying to create a specific asthetic, this myth that these movements that have existed since around 2016, and coalesced around Covid, that they have some sort of lineage going back to 1916, they cleary don't. "In our research of their communications since 2016, they are primarily with British nationalists and English fascists. It's clear to us why the likes of Tommy Robinson and others are retweeting this stuff. They share the same world view, the flag is just a prop to share this false link to 1916. "In the North, the anti-immigrant activisits are mobilising around the term 'Love Ulster', here it's 'Love Ireland'. The importation of islamaphobia. "The raison d'etre of these movements is lifted from international spheres. They are even looking to forge alliances with fringe loyalists. "What we're seeing is some of the key actors in anti-immigrant mobilising have very extreme politics; white supremacy, neo nazi, islamophobia. "There is a distinction between people who are maybe fearful of difference, that's not an abnormal experience many people have that, but when we see people explicitly pushing white supremacist politics. Not just going to marches but live-streaming, actively organising people in local communities to stoke fear. "Propogating this myth that there is this link to historical Irish republicanism, part of what we want to do in our work is to smash that myth." 'A small minority with a large megaphone' Mr Malone said the far-right in Ireland is "still a small minority with a large megaphone provided by social media". He pointed to the "complete rejection" of anti-immigrant candidates in the recent general election, but warned that moving political discourse further to the right could still occuer. He said this is something politicians should be aware of, and made particular reference to human rights concerns over recent deportation flights from the State. Ireland Facebook being used to coordinate racist attacks i... Read More "We've already seen the Minister for Justice doing this macabre tweeting about deportation. The National Party won't be complaining about that. "We're seeing stories of people being deported after turning up for their regular calls to the Garda station which they're meant to do as part of their terms and conditions, committing no crimes and following up on what they're being asked to do, and yet they're being lifted and put on deportation flights. "Potentially the desire to shape numbers is affecting how people are being arrested and then deported, that is a concern. "Even though the organised far-right is very small, the impact it can have on the mainstream parties can be significant. It's the role of all of us to remind them, look at Europe where centre right parties take the clothes of the far-right... they get a hiding at the ballots."
