Man stabbed to death was due to become father again in six weeks, funeral told

Michael ‘Chino’ Ryan (51), a father-of-two of Carton Road in Poppintree near Ballymun in North Dublin, was attacked in the street in nearby Hampton Wood estate just after midnight on Thursday last week.

Although Mr Ryan was known to gardai, investigating detectives believe the incident was as a result of a row at a gathering of people known to each other and not part of a feud or gang activity.

A man in his 30s who was known to Ryan as arrested close to the scene and has since been charged in relation to the incident.

At St Oliver Plunkett’s Church in Finglas South, mourners were told by Fr Seamus Ahearne that it was a particularly sad time for the family who had only gathered at the church in May for the funeral of Michael’s mother Bernie. His sister Berno had also died in 2016.

“Berno couldn’t speak but her world was special, and her life spoke. In some ways, we are like Berno today. We cannot speak. No words can express how we feel and how stunned everyone is,” said Fr Ahearne.

Making reference to the funeral of another Finglas man, Mark Carroll, last Saturday, Fr Ahearne said he too had been stabbed.

“He was stabbed. And now we are here. Chino was stabbed. It is beyond our simple minds to understand why and how knives can be used and young lives extinguished. It is all too sad. It is sad and bad that it has happened. It is horrible for everyone when lives are destroyed. What is happening in our society?” he said.

“Chino was a character. Noisy and busy. Full of banter and fun. He always wanted to amuse everyone. Everything was a laugh. But he was very serious about important things such as how he looked. Everything had to be exact and right. He had style.

“He rather enjoyed cooking too. And was then immediately was willing to put on video his latest cooking adventure. Ramsay and Oliver were only amateurs compared to himself, or so he thought. He was a show off,” he added.

Fr Ahearne explained that Ryan had ‘got in to a bit of trouble’ in the past, referring to a conviction he had for an attempted cash-in-transit van robbery from an incident in 2007 for which he served some time in prison.

“It seems that he was attracted by the fun and madness of it all, which of course it wasn’t. Chino was a good lad. His glamour and flamboyance was in the simple things of life,” he said.

“I must be getting very old and crotchety. But I am concerned with the anger in society. With the aggression. With the riots in Dublin. With the crudity of Trump’s language. With the protests at the homes of our politicians. With the debate in the public domain. With the shouting of the pilots and Aer Lingus.

“Everyone seems to be angry. I see houses around here too which are defaced. The vacant ones with graffiti on them saying ‘Only Irish’ and ‘no to foreigners or be burned’. Why such sad crudity and obscenity in life?

“How can any Irish person could do such things – with our own history. We are rotten with drugs. The young are being polluted. And then there are guns. And knives. How can it happen that two men are buried in this parish due to knife crime? What is seeping into our culture? “ he added.

Symbols of his life brought to the altar included a Newcastle football jersey, a baseball cap, a hip-flask, and a Star Wars figure.

A relative who spoke at the end of the Requiem Mass said “there was no airs and graces with Chino. What you saw was what you got. He was fun and cheeky, strong and independent, and lived his life his way”.

His funeral notice said he would be mourned by his partner Tanya, children Cameron, his unborn son Oscar, Eoin, Rebecca and Zoe, his grandsons, his dad Christopher, sisters and brother Vivienne, Elizabeth and Christopher, mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, extended family, neighbours and friends.

After the funeral Mass, Mr Ryan’s remains were brought to Glasnevin cemetery.