Neighbours hugely shocked by the death of 'quiet and inoffensive' John
JOHN KENNEDY was described by neighbours as a 'quiet and inoffensive' man. His death caused huge grief and shock in and around the Pearse Park area.
Mrs. Rita Black, who lived across the road from Mr. Kennedy with her husband Michael and children, remarked how she had been at the front door of her home at midnight on the New Year's Eve, listening to the church bells and sirens from the ships in the port. She hadn't noticed anything unusual.
The following morning she did notice Mr. Kennedy's door wide open. Later, a group of local men decided to check if everything was OK and entered the home.
They found Mr. Kennedy slumped over the end of his bed. The back door of the house was also open.
Speaking in the hours after the murder, neighbour Sam Somerville said 'none of us have slept since poor John was murdered. We are all just shocked to the core that such a horrible thing should happen. He was a man who never did anyone any harm.'
Mr. Kennedy was the son of farm labourer John Kennedy and his wife Elizabeth and was the second youngest of a family of four.
He was survived by a brother, Peter, and sister, Mrs. Philomena Thornton from Oulster Lane. He was predeceased by another sister, Mrs. Annie Walsh from Pearse Park.
He went to school at St Joseph's CBS and left school at 14 when he joined the Peter Lyons Bakery and worked there for 50 years.
At his funeral mass, PP Fr. Francis Donnelly described his murder as ' a great slur on the community'. Local curate Fr. Thomas Daly celebrated the mass and and said that those who 'engage in acts of violence do not wish to hear the good news or have set their faces against it.'
