DOMINIC Moloney was hailed a hero who fended off a mob of thugs, as his account of the morning of September 21, 2009, was supported by the majority of witnesses both for the prosecution and defence.
For many of the witnesses that took the stand in Ennis Courthouse it was an emotional and difficult time, recalling the events that led them to flee their homes in fear.
Robert Maxwell described his neighbour as a hero. The young man told how he was woken up on the morning of September 21, 2009, to the sound of glass smashing and people “roaring up the stairs. It was like a nightmare. It was scary.”
He told how he went downstairs and got the sweeping brush to protect his mother who was being attacked by a man and a woman.
Mr Moloney’s car then came into the estate and the attackers left the house thinking it was the gardaí.
Mr Maxwell told how the assailants continued to abuse his neighbours. “They looked up to my neighbours and said ‘You are next if you are looking out the window.’ It was like a pack of animals. Everyone in the estate was frightened, not just us.”
“All I can say is he [Mr Moloney] is a hero to me. He saved my mother’s life,” he said.
Mary Maxwell, a woman who had suffered a brain tumour and a stroke, struggled to get to the witness box. Describing her age as 50 and a bit, she spoke slowly but determinedly as she battled the affects of ill health.
“I remember all this breaking noise when I was in bed and I came out on to the hallway. I didn’t even bring my walker with me that morning. I thought someone might have fallen down the stairs,” she said.
She said as she looked out into the hall she got a shock as she was hit with a weapon and pinned to the stairs. She told how she was terrified as she was hit in the side with an Shook after already receiving a blow to the head. She received 20 stitches to her face following the attack.
Mr Moloney’s daughter, Ciara (20), struggled to keep the tears at bay as she recalled her fear. She told how she was woken by the sound of breaking glass and after ringing the gardaí, she rang her father who had already left for work.
“I rang my father because the people outside were shouting up at different windows saying you would be next,” she said.
Ms Moloney broke down as she said she was petrified when her father left the estate after the windows in his car were smashed. She called him again and he returned.
“My father was only trying to save people. He has lived there for 25 years,” she said through her tears.
Her father was equally distressed as he watched his daughter give evidence in his trial.
Caroline O’Sullivan, 63 Cappa Lodge, said she was delighted that Mr Moloney had fired his gun, describing the two men and woman attacking the houses as “vicious”.
“He fired a shot which I was delighted for because they retreated back into the house. This had been going on a while. I was terrified to look out the window never mind go outside,” she said.
Lorna McDonald, 35 Cappa Lodge, fought back the tears as she recalled the scene that greeted her in her mother’s – Mary Maxwell – house later that morning. “It was unreal.”
She was visibly emotional as she described how her mother was sitting on the stairs covered in blood. “It was horrible. It was a nightmare.”
Mrs McDonald’s husband Michael McDonald was next to take the stand as a prosecution witness.
“I hadn’t seen anything like that since I was a child. I grew up in west Belfast,” he said of that morning in Cappa Lodge.
“I shot myself and I definitely saw he [Mr Moloney] wasn’t shooting [at] anyone.”
Darragh Devaney, 63 Cappa Lodge, recalled how his father locked all the family into an upstairs room on the fateful morning. Darragh had woken up to the sound of “smashing glass” and two men breaking the windows of the house. There were nine people in the house in total including his father, mother and siblings.
He described how when he went downstairs he saw a slash hook coming through the front door. He was attempting to get his blind brother out of his downstairs bedroom when their father came down and brought them all upstairs.
“He locked us all into an upstairs room,” said Mr Devaney.
Aaron Doherty, 26 Cappa Lodge, known as Dots, was called to check on Mary Maxwell that morning. A gun owner himself, Mr Doherty said there was no question in his mind. He was sure Mr Moloney was not shooting at anyone.