This article is from page 1 of the 2011-12-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 1 JPG
ONLOOKERS in Ennis were stunned on Friday afternoon last when a vicious melee broke out in the Turnpike area of the town.
The violent incident saw a van crash into three parked cars, one of which contained a four year-old child, before the occupants of another van emerged to smash windows and attack two men with shovels.
“I thought someone would be killed,” an eyewitness told The Clare People. “One van drove the other off the road, damaging cars and moving them eight or ten feet up on the footpath,” he said.
Miraculously the four year-old child was not hurt in the incident, despite the car he was in being hit by the van.“They then got out of their van and attacked the fellas in the van they run off the road. They had shov- els and smashed the windows in with the shovels. They then tried to hit the men in the van with the end of the shovels.
“It was frightening to watch. It’s a miracle no-one was seriously injured, especially the child.
“The men with the shovels took off quickly and the gardaí were here in minutes,” he explained.
Gardaí were conducting door-todoor enquiries in Ennis on Friday after the incident, which occurred around lunchtime outside Yvonne’s takeaway and Ladbrookes bookmakers.
The road was closed for a brief period. Gardaí are appealing for witnesses with any information to come forward. A garda spokesman explained;
“The driver of one of the vans was involved in an altercation on the Kilrush Road a short time earlier outside the Social Welfare offices.”