FORMER LIMERICK MAYOR John Gilligan has said the family of Steve Collins “couldn’t survive” in the city, after it emerged they had left Ireland over fears for their safety.
The Collins family had become embroiled in a dispute with a gang, which culminated in the murder of Steve’s son Roy in 2009.
They had been under 24-hour armed guard after threats were made against their lives. The family have now moved abroad under a witness relocation programme, the Irish Examiner reports.
Gilligan, an independent councillor and friend of the family, spoke about the difficulties of their life since Roy’s murder.
You must remember what their life was like. They couldn’t go to work without an armed guard, they couldn’t go home without an armed guard, they couldn’t go shopping without an armed guard. They couldn’t do the ordinary simple things that normal people do.
He told Newstalk Breakfast: “Since the death of their son, they were also given a life sentence [...] I don’t think they could have survived either mentally or physically.”
Gilligan said that there was nothing that could have been done by the State to better protect the family. “What else you could do, give them more armed guards?” he said. “The problem we have is that we have so many sick vicious individuals in society.”
But he said there was a “sense of failure” in the city that the Collinses had had to leave.
People should be able to stand up to these people, people should be able to go to court, people should be able to make statements.
According to the Irish Independent, the State bought the pub owned by Steve Collins in order to help the family move abroad.
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