The funeral took place on Wednesday 15th March at 2pm at Benalmadena International Cemetery; there were over 200 people at the service both British and Spanish. It had been our intention to celebrate Gary’s life by not wearing traditional black, but by wearing the colours or the shirt of your football team. We knew so many people there that I don’t think many teams would not have had a shirt on show. I am sure that almost every city or town in the U.K would have had a shirt on show but we were advised against doing this as some Spanish people might have thought of it as being football hooligan orientated. This annoyed me considering that it was a Spanish lad who killed Gary. The funeral was against our wishes as we wanted Gary back home in the U.K; we felt and still feel that we had been forced into this.
On Friday 17th March at 10.30am I got a phone call from a solicitor to say that the judge had all the medical reports, and that Gary’s body could now be cremated or returned to the U.K. After another couple of weeks of phone calls and false promises my wife returned to the U.K broken hearted and wanting to be with Gary’s five month old son Kieran, and of course Ashley. I stayed in Benalmadena trying to get permission for the release of Gary’s body. This was proving to be a complete waste of time I was so frustrated with the incompetence of the Spanish authorities that I returned to the U.K in July 2006 to get our politicians and the government involved.
Gary had a lot of friends and was very popular; he played for a couple of teams in the Benalmadena pool league and then became the captain of a team. We played against teams from Torremolinos to Fuengirola; we were having a great time, one season finishing next to bottom, to winning the league the next season. After several attempts trying to play golf a couple Gary gave it up and stuck to pool.
The same pool league now has an annual competition at the White Rose Bar called the Gary Dunne Memorial Trophy. Gary would be delighted to know two of his old mates have got to the final in the last two years. Kevin Doyle from the Wirral has taken both trophies, beating Les Souter from Newcastle on both occasions. The Vines run a golf competition called the Gary Dunne golf trophy that was won last year by Darren from Ireland.
You can sign online at www.radiocity.co.uk/garydunne
You can leave a message at gary-dunne@hotmail.com
You can make a donation at any HSBC bank to the GARY DUNNE FUND
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