Colin Farrell was recently on vacation in Italy with his new fellow Irish girlfriend Muireann McDonnell. McDonnell, 21, was working at a gourmet food store near Colin’s hometown of Dublin when she met her old boyfriend, John Marc Knight, a 22 year-old college student who tended bar across the screet.

McDonnell and Knight had already broken up when she met Colin Farrel around Christmas time. In fact Farrell met McDonnell at the very bar where Knight worked. Apparrently the hapless barkeep still had a torch for McDonnell and couldn’t bear to see her happy with a famous star.

Knight killed himself this February, but it was also right after his college exams, so maybe he was depressed for a bunch of different reasons:

John Marc Knight, 22, was said to have been “devastated” when fellow student Muireann McDonnell fell for the Irish film star.

Two months later he committed suicide. Last night stunning brunette Muireann, 21, was said to be still battling to come to terms with the tragedy.

The pair had already split when she met Phone Booth actor Farrell, 30, over Christmas.

Before that she and John had been a “really good couple”, according to friends. One source said: “They’d been going out for some time and gone travelling…

Farrell met Muireann when he went to a party at a bar in Dalkey, near Dublin — opposite the gourmet food store where she worked.

A pal of John’s said: “They must have hit it off immediately. They began to go out. John was devastated.”

The former altar boy was found dead in February at his home. He had just finished his college exams — and the day before had joined pals to watch Ireland’s rugby clash with France.

The article says that no one blames anyone for what happened. Clearly this was just a troubled guy, and it’s a sad story all around.

Colin Farrell is a busy guy. According to IMDB he has four movies coming out next year, and has completed a Woody Allen film, Cassandra’s Dream, which is out this October.

Here are pictures of Colin and Maureen on vacation. [via] Inset picture and story from The Sun.