Friends and family gather for murdered Irish man's funeral

THE FUNERAL OF Dubliner Kevin McGuirk and his wife will take place today after they were murdered at their home in South Africa.

The service will take place at a funeral home in Braamfontein, central Johannesburg, near where the couple lived in the suburb of Anderton. It was announced yesterday to acquaintances of the couple in a local outdoor sports group. Mr McGuirk and his wife Kim ran a scuba diving tour company, Africa Diving Scuba, running dive trips around the coast of South Africa and other countries.

Mourners will gather for the service at 2pm local time. A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson confirmed to TheJournal.ie that Mr McGuirk had family in both Ireland and South Africa.

The couple’s bodies were discovered last Tuesday. Yesterday it emerged that in the days before their deaths the murdered couple had sought a restraining order against Kim McGuirk’s father Erwin Poppinger, who is on trial over the killings. Mr Poppinger, 75, who shared the couple’s home is facing two murder charges.

A lawyer for Mr Poppinger told reporters the 75-year-old was not happy about sharing a home with the couple. “Basically, it’s been a long ongoing family feud,” he said, according to local Eyewitness News. The lawyer said Mr Poppinger acknowledged that an “incident took place”, saying that “he acted in self defence”.

Read more: Murdered Irishman and wife sought restraining order against suspect>

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