Player's murder casts pall over ABs visit

Jonah Lomu will flick on Limerick's Christmas lights on Monday - but there will be little sense of festive spirit as the inhabitants of Ireland's notoriously violent city continue to mourn the gangland slaying of an amateur rugby player.

The All Blacks marked Armistice Day prematurely at Murrayfield last weekend with a moment's silence to remember the dead from World War I and subsequent conflicts before they played Scotland.

It appears they will be asked to stand to muted attention again at Croke Park on Sunday morning (NZT) as the Irish Rugby Union acknowledge the murder of popular Limerick club player Shane Geoghegan, the latest victim of gang warfare gripping the city situated 196km west of Dublin.

Geoghegan planned to attend the All Blacks' match with Munster at Thomond Park next week Wednesday (NZT) - a contest to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the province's historic 12-0 defeat of Graham Mourie's Grand Slam All Blacks.

Instead the 28-year-old will be buried at Mungret cemetery following a Mass at St Joseph's church tomorrow, a solemn occasion expected to draw thousands of mourners.

Geoghegan was gunned down last weekend, struck five times nearby his house in what police say was a tragic case of mistaken identity.

His death is the latest in a sequence of gang-inspired shootings in a city christened "Stab City" in the 1980s, a chilling reference to the number of random knife crimes perpetrated in the city centre.

A fixture Ireland's tourist trail through the midwest, Limerick eventually shed that unsavory moniker only for gang feuds to again blight the city's reputation since the start of the new Millennium.

Turf wars between the McCarthy-Dundon gang and the rival Keane/Collopy faction have intensified on Limerick's Kilteragh estate since late 2006.

The Irish Independent newspaper today added Geoghegan to a list of six other innocent victims caught in the crossfire. They included an apprentice plumber shot dead as he was fixing a radiator so there would be no witnesses to the slaying of gangster `Marlo' Hyland in December 2006.

Police investigating Geoghegan's murder by a lone gunman associated to the McCarthy-Dundon alliance believe a member of the Keane/Collopy gang was the intended target. Armed police are patrolling the city's grim housing estates, fearing a retaliatory strike.

Geoghegan's death and the subsequent outpouring of grief has undeniably taken the gloss of the anniversary of Munster's famous victory, which dovetails with the official opening of a redeveloped Thomond Park.

Limerick Mayor John Gilligan described the killing as "one of the most evil deeds the city had encountered" while city councillor Kevin Kiely called on all rugby teams playing this weekend hold a minute's silence - a measure that may also be taken when the All Blacks play Ireland in Dublin.

Books of condolences were opened at the Limerick City Council yesterday, attracting hundreds of messages.

Gilligan said all expressed horror and revulsion at the murder.

"A fine young man has been callously butchered by a group of people who have done nothing to Limerick except bring death, misery and drag the city's name through the mud," he said.

"We were looking forward to the visit of the All Blacks next week, but all that seems so inconsequential now. The entire city is stunned and shocked."

-NZPA