AN agricultural contractor who was shot dead last Tuesday was described as a hard working man, whose work activities benefited his home town and the surrounding rural areas.

Dad-of-one daughter Derry Coakley was shot was he climbed on his tractor at 11.40pm on Tuesday night following a confrontation about his late night working on land at Raleigh North, Macroom, Co Cork.

The 59-year-old workaholic machinery contractor was depositing top soil and others materials on land with the landowners permission when the shooting happened.

Although serious wounded from a shotgun blast which hit his hand and abdomen, he managed to drive his tractor and trailer several hundred yards to the main road.

He phoned a friend who was quickly on the scene but Derry died from his wounds before paramedics arrived there.

This morning at his funeral mass in St Colman’s Church, Macroom, where he attended 8.30am mass every Sunday morning, hundreds of people came to pay their respects to his grieving family.

Monsignor James O’Donnell compared Derry’s tragic and sudden death to a blackout when people are plunged into darkness completely unprepared.

He said: “When the electricity is suddenly and unexpectedly cut off everything stops, the television goes blank and there is silence. Worst of all, the lights go out. There is a blackout and in the darkness we may be lost, left helpless and frightened.

“Most likely in a blackout we are angry. Our work, our plans are disrupted and we wonder and ask ‘why has this happened’. A tragic death, which is almost always sudden, is like a blackout without warning, without giving us a chance to prepare we are launched into darkness. Our whole world is turned upside down.

“Last Tuesday night Derry Coakley’s life was suddenly and tragically extinguished.”

Describing Derry as a “gift of God, a gift that Derry was to all of us” he said people were trying to come to terms with his tragic loss especially his family.

He said “We would all have our own memories of Derry. Like his father Sean his name was synonymous with hard work, long hours with machinery including tractors and diggers, with efficiency, with honesty, with a desire to help and with an inability to say no.

“His importance in our community was well summed up by one of his many friends who said ‘Whenever there was a job to be done, whenever there was a problem, Derry was the go to person.

“We are all beneficiaries of Derry’s skills. Many parts of our town and countryside have Derry’s imprint.

“Every job Derry took in hand was finished to perfection.

“He was also interested in music and dancing. Daniel O’Donnell, Margo and Philomena Begley were among his favourites.

“He shared his love of music with his daughter Deirdre and was delighted to be able to bring Deirdre and her pals to music concerts in Killarney and elsewhere and, of course, to bring them home safely in the early hours

“One thing we can be sure of here today is that Derry’s death concerns God more than it concerns us because he is one of his children who has died tragically.

“When darkness falls we rush to the light, any light.

“Now we turn to the only light in our darkness and that is the light of Christ.

“Christ will not only take special care of Derry, he will take special care of him precisely because of the kind of death he suffered.

“God will take him safely home to God’s kingdom where sorrow and tears will be no more.”

The gifts brought to the altar also reflected Derry’s life – a tractor, a JCB and a Hi-Vis jacket.

Derry was buried in St Colman’s Cemetery and the local Tidy Towns Committee gave him a guard of honour.

On Saturday afternoon, a local man was brought to a special sitting of Bandon district Court and charged with Derry’s murder.