More than 100 people gather to remember popular busker Thomas O’Halloran who died on Tuesday.
Image source, PA MediaMore than 100 people gathered to pay a musical tribute to a grandfather who was fatally stabbed while riding a mobility scooter in west London.
Thomas O’Halloran, 87, died at the scene in Cayton Road, Greenford, after being attacked on Tuesday afternoon.
He was known to busk regularly by the train station in Greenford and tributes at the gathering on Cayton Road included songs he performed.
Lee Byer, 44, of Southall, west London, has been charged with his murder.
Many from the Irish community were among those paying tribute to Mr O’Halloran, originally from Ennistymon, County Clare, in Ireland.
Image source, Met Police
Mr O’Halloran played the accordion and had recently been busking to raise money for Ukraine when he would have the country’s flag draped over the front of his scooter.
Ambrose Gordon, 61, said his friend would have “loved” the tribute.
“He’d be there on his little trolley and he’d have been playing his tunes and things like that,” he said.
Another friend, 65-year-old Gerry Hehir, said that Mr O’Halloran’s death “shocked” the community.
Mr Hehir, from nearby South Harrow, said: “I have lived here for 29 years. It’s a shock, the way it happened. I mean, there’s a lot of tragedies in London and in the wider place and all throughout the world, but it’s a very, very sad thing.”
Image source, Ronaldo Butrus
He described Mr O’Halloran as “very quiet and professional”, and added he was “a very loving man and a very caring man”.
“He will be very well remembered for everything he’s done for the community,” he said.
Mr Hehir described the event as a “sad occasion which turned into what I would call not joyful but the easing of people coming together. I think it meant a lot to the family and to all of us”.
Before the ceremony, flowers, candles and a vial of holy water were laid at the site near where Mr O’Halloran was stabbed.
Local parish priest Father Tom Daly led the community in prayer. He said: “We pray today for Tom, who died so violently.
“In the face of this kind of awful incident, we don’t know what to do and people feel completely helpless.”
During the event, local musicians played several songs, including Now I’m Easy by the Dubliners, as the community clapped and sang along.
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