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ALCOHOL-FUELLED incidents after a birthday party at a pub in Shannon were reminiscent of scenes from the Wild West, according to a judge, who imposed fines totalling more than €2,500 and jailed one of those involved.

Arising out of the early morning incident, six people, originally from Limerick — including two women and a teenage boy — faced several charges. Between them, they pleaded guilty to 14 charges, on September 21, 2008. Several other charges were withdrawn by the State.

In handing down the sentences, Judge Leo Malone said, “It’s lucky the incident ended as it did without serious harm or injury to those peo- ple or the gardai. It could have had very serious consequences.”

Noel O’Callaghan (48), of Fergus

Road, Shannon, admitted a charge of criminal damage and public order; Stephen Kelly (27), of Slaney Park, Shannon, admitted obstructing a garda and public order; and

Martin O’Callaghan (20), of Fergus Road, Shannon, admitted producing a shovel in a threatening manner and public order.

Lesley O’Callaghan (21), of Fergus Road, Shannon, admitted obstruct- ing a garda and public order;

Melita Galvin (18), of Shanabooley Road, Ballynanty, Limerick, admit- ted obstructing a garda and public order; while a 17-year-old youth, who cannot be named because of his age, admitted obstructing a garda and public order.

Sergeant Kevin O’Hagan told En- nis District Court that there was unruly behaviour outside the Cross- roads pub in Drumgeely. One of the accused, Stephen Kelly, was verbally

abusive to gardai at the scene and resisted arrest. A short time later, as he walked out the front door of his house, Kelly again shouted at gardai. He was arrested and while he did not resist arrest on this occasion, a number of others interfered. The ju- venile jumped on top of the gardai and swung out of them. The juvenile was then arrested and he became aggressive to gardai. Melita Galvin also swung out of a garda, while he was trying to put Stephen Kelly into a patrol car. Several gardai arrived on the scene and the incident eventu- ally calmed down.

A short time later, Noel O’Callaghan began to shout and showed gardai blood on his hands, having smashed six glasses in the pub earlier. As he was being arrested, a number of others pulled at gardai. One of the accused, Martin O’Callaghan, ap- peared from his house with a long-

handed shovel in his hand. “He was swinging the shovel over his head, shouting to gardai “Come and get me’. He was stripped to the waist,’ said the garda. He said that Lesley O’Callaghan managed to calm him down.

While the incident was diffused within 20 minutes, “gardai main- tained a presence in the area all the night, in case there was a recurrence. It was totally alcohol-fuelled. Some incident happened in the premises. When people were arrested it seemed to escalate more,’ said Sgt O’ Hagan.

Judge Leo Malone said it sounded like “The Wild West.’

The judge said that Noel O’Callaghan was “old enough to have sense.” Defending solicitor John Herbert accepted this, but said he had remained away from the greater part of the fray. He was fined €300. Re- ferring to Martin O’Callaghan, Mr

Herbert said that while he produced a Shovel, he did not make contact with gardai. “There wasn’t any great intent other than bravado,” he said. However, Judge Malone remarked, ‘A shovel could kill you.” Mr Her- bert said, ““While his ire was directed at gardai, he did not leave the gen- eral curtilage of the house.” A three- month jail term and fine of €250 was imposed. “The reason for the sen- tence is I look very seriously on fire- arms offences,” said the judge. Melita Galvin was fined €600. Fines total- ling €800 were imposed on Stephen Kelly, while Lesley O’Callaghan was fined €500.

Mr Herbert said that the juvenile “has been targeted by criminals to do certain things for them because he does not have the wherewithal to make proper decisions.” He was fined €200. The total amount of the fines imposed was €2,650.

THE men charged last week in con- nection with a feud in Ennis deny any involvement in the incident, with one of them telling a court, “I’m a lover, not a fighter.”

Charles Foley, solicitor for the six McDonagh brothers, said his clients were not the instigators of the inci- elem

Jason McDonagh, a father-of-three, told the court he was not involved in a feud. He said he has two sick chil- dren. His wife Anne Marie said, “For Jason, it was the wrong place at the wrong time. He has been dragged into this unnecessarily.”

Edward ‘Ned’ McDonagh told the court, “These people came down uninvited. I never retaliated since

March 28. All that’s been made is al- legations. Whatever had to be done there was defence. We were defend- ing ourselves. There was young kids there.”

Asked why people from Limerick were in his home in March, he said, “We know them from horse fairs. I don’t know them individually.” He said he knew nothing about petrol bombs that were found by gardai at the house.

Michael McDonagh denied any involvement in the incidents. “I’m a lover, not a fighter,’ he proclaimed. However, Inspector Tom Kennedy put it to him that his “flippant atti- tude” in the witness box was an indi- cation of his “entire attitude for this court and for law and order the Su- perintendent fears is going to break

down.” The accused replied, “I’m not a violent person.” Mr Foley said the “flippant” remark was made by his client under pressure.

It was put to Gerard McDonagh that he was hiding in the hot press when gardai went to arrest him. He replied, “I was in the hotpress look- ing for clothes.” Inspector Kennedy said he did not want the court turned into a circus.

The fifth accused, David McDon- agh said, “This is not my feud.”

Joseph McDonagh, who is accused of damaging a car last week, told the court, “We are being victimised.”

He said he has not been involved in any part of the feud. “I have in- tervened in rows, to try and keep the peace in the town,’ he added.

Mr Foley said if granted bail, the

accused men would undertake to stay out of trouble. “This incident occurred effectively on their own doorstep. They were in their moth- er’s house at the time,” he said.

However, Inspector Kennedy said this bail application was _ unprec- edented in terms of the concerns outlined by the State. Relating to the alleged assault, he said, “It’s by any standards a grave assault. One would wonder how this man survived it.”

He said there was a huge risk that someone would be very seriously injured “if not left dead” due to the feud. “There is very good reason why the Supt is so concerned about what’s gone on and what’s likely to go on if these people are admitted to bail,” he said.

Judge Leo Malone refused bail for

Edward ‘Ned’, Michael and Gerard McDonagh. He granted bail for Ja- son and David McDonagh, on strin- gent conditions. He said the reason he was granting bail to Jason was be- cause he has disabled children. The bail conditions include that they re- main away from a number of people and addresses in Ennis; sign on at the garda station and abide by a curfew.

Joseph McDonagh was also grant- ed bail, with stringent conditions at- Ne tere b

Bail, totalling €13,000 (between own and independent sureties), was set for the three men who were grant- ed bail.

“If there is any breach of the bail conditions, bail will be revoked and they won’t get bail again,” said the judge.

GARDAI are warning people in Clare to raise their awareness of the importance of crime prevention, for Community Safety Week, which got underway yesterday (Monday).

Clare Crime Prevention Officer Sergeant Joe Downey said in recent weeks, thieves appear to have target- ed work tools in particular.

Dozens of houses across the county

have been broken into recently and gardai fear an escalation in this type of crime over the summer months.

“We do this once a year, to try and reassure members of the public of the benefits of crime prevention.

“We are re-emphasising the impor- tance of crime prevention strategies,” said Sgt Downey.

During the week, Sgt Downey will meet with various neighbourhood watch, community alert and business

alert committees, along with elderly groups.

“It is important to stress and em- phasise the importance of everybody playing a part in preventing their properties from being stolen.

“We are emphasising the impor- tance of marking property,” he said.

“When people notice any suspi- cious activity, they should contact gardai,’ he said.

“We have noticed that tools are be-

ing targeted. There has been a big in- crease in the theft of tools from vans and cars parked in driveways and in isolated locations.

‘There seems to be a ready market for property and people are not ask- ing enough questions when they are being sold these items,” he added.

A WOMAN died due to smoke inha- lation after her cottage in east Clare took fire, an inquest heard yesterday.

Helen ‘Nellie’ Moloney (77) died in a fire at her home at Woodcock Hill, Meelick, on July 14 last year.

At Ennis Coroner’s Court yester- day, her son Tony, who lived with her, recalled the hours leading up to her death.

He said he had checked on his mother at 10pm, llpm and 3.30am and each time she told him she was ‘fine’.

He said he woke up at 7.55am to two loud bangs. He said there was black smoke coming through the roof of the house, to his bedroom. The hall- way of the house was full of smoke. He said he went outside and the win- dows appeared black with smoke.

He threw a flower pot in through

his mother’s bedroom window and through the sitting room window, in an effort to see her. He ran to their neighbour’s house and summoned help.

“IT was shouting, “Mammy, Mam- my’, but there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t get into the house with the flames,’ he recalled.

Another son, Tom, said he received a call to go home early that morning. He thought his mother had fallen as

she had fallen previously.

When he got to the house, he saw that it was in flames. The house had burnt down, but the walls were still standing.

His brother Tony told him that their mother was in the house and he couldn’t get her out. He was later told by a garda that his mother was in the sitting room and had died.

Sergeant Noel McMahon said he attempted to gain entry but was un-

able to do so due to the flames and smoke. After the fire had been put out, he went into the building, where he found the badly burnt body of Mrs Moloney.

Dr Elizabeth Mulcahy carried out a post mortem examination on her body at Limerick Regional Hospi- tal. She said she had suffered severe twee

She concluded that death was most likely due to smoke inhalation.

AN 18-year-old girl lost her life in a road accident just weeks before she was due to receive her Leaving Certificate results, an inquest heard yesterday.

Tace Gould Duff, from Rahona West, Carrigaholt, lost her life in an accident at Corbally, Kilkee on Au-

gust 3 last year.

At Ennis Coroner’s Court yester- day, Tom Lowry recalled that after- noon. He said he and his wife were driving along at a speed of no more than 40 mph, at around 4pm.

He said he saw a car approaching in their line of vision and then there was an impact. “I just remember a car and then impact,” he said.

Tace Gould Duff’s brother, David, recalled being at home that day when gardai called. They told him that his sister had been involved in a very serious road accident. Their parents were in the UK at the time.

Garda Patricia Lonergan attended the scene of the accident, between a Volkswagen Passatt and a Renault ‘liter

She said that Ms Tace Gould Duff’s Clio had ended up in a field on the left-hand side of the road and had been extensively damaged.

A female was lying across the pas- senger side of the car. She was pro- nounced dead at the scene.

Pathologist Dr Elizabeth Mulcahy carried out a post mortem examina- tion on the deceased’s body at Limer-

ick Regional Hospital. She concluded that death was due to acute cardiac respiratory arrest, secondary to head injuries, consistent with having been involved in a road accident.

A verdict of accidental death was recorded.

Inspector Michael Gallagher said it was “sad to see a life being cut so short.”

Hotelier stages stand-off against water supply

THE number of prisoners being admitted with heroin addictions and availing of rehabilitation pro- grammes at the overcrowded Limer- ick prison has increased by over 300 per cent in the past year.

In a stark indication of the increas- ing grip heroin is having on Clare and the mid-west’s criminal classes, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has confirmed that 37 prisoners under- went rehab programmes at at Limer- ick prison last year.

With just ten prisoners availing of the programme in 2007, the increase coincides with a significant increase in heroin related crime offences com- ing before Clare’s court system.

Separate figures confirm the con-

tinuing problem of overcrowding at Limerick prison with Minister Ahern confirming that on April 14 last year, there were 303 people in the 275 bed Limerick prison.

He said, “The prison system is sub- ject to peaks and troughs. Numbers are particularly high when the courts are at their busiest, giving rise to a high number of committals.

“This situation is particularly ap- parent over the past 12 months, where we have seen dramatic in- creases in the number of sentenced prisoners, those being committed on remand and a trend towards longer sentences.

“The prison service must accept all prisoners committed by the courts. For example, figures show, over the past 12 years, the numbers in custody

have increased by 65 per cent.

““T acknowledge that our prisons are Operating in excess of bed capacity and it is evident that the continuation of the current capital programme is necessary if overcrowding is not to become a problem going forward.

Clare Fine Gael TD, Joe Carey said that overcrowding created extra tension and made prisoner violence more likely.

“This issue is not about prisoner comforts but about having safe ef- fective prisons which function prop- erly. Prisons cannot work properly if they are packed to over capacity. The cycle of crime cannot be broken if prisoners are not rehabilitated. I don’t believe the conditions at Lim- erick Prison are in the best interests of society as a whole.

last April in a desperate bid to find a home for the two squirrels when the developer who commis- sioned the work pulled out. If the Ennis man was unable to find an alternative patron, he would have been forced to destroy the unfinished sculpture.

However, after subsequent national publicity, a Cork-based couple made an offer for Mr Wrafter to complete the work.

Yesterday, Mr Wrafter revealed that he received an offer double the amount from another developer.

“His locations lacked what the sculptures needed plus I didn’t think he knew that much about art, this was just a trophy for him. So I de- cided to stick by my guns and go with my principles and with people who know about art and appreciate what it is.”

“To be honest I took the work way further than they needed to go because I wanted this be finished immaculately. Financially it killed me, but I felt it was more important to get it done and get it out there and then come what may after that.”

The completed sculpture includes the eight foot tall grey squirrel weighing nine tonnes and the smaller red squirrel weighing three quarters of a ton.

He admitted to having mixed emo- tions with the removal planned this week for the transfer of the squirrels to the Cork collectors.

“I will be delighted in some way. It has been a big part of my life over the past two years, but I want my work to go in different directions now. I will be sad as well though. It is my most ambitious piece ever. It

is very unusual and I have grown at- tached to it.”

Mr Wrafter said that the public will no longer be able to see his work af- ter itis handed over to its new owners as it will be placed in front of a castle but away from public view. One of the other sculptures on the collec- tors’ estate is by a former winner of the prestigious UK-based Turner uv ier

Mr Wrafter said he was angry that in the past number of weeks, he asked three officials from Clare County Council to come to view the sculpture, but they turned his offer Kenan

“I was very disappointed with the council’s attitude,” he said.

POTHOLES and bad roads are set to dominate local authority meetings in Ennis for years to come, a meeting has heard.

Senior executive engineer with En- nis Town Council, Eamon O’Dea told last week’s meeting of council- lors in the Ennis electoral area that the council has been forced to re- evaluate its roadworks programme for 2009 in the face of dwindling resources.

Mr O’Dea said funding cutbacks would lead to a major drop in the level of re-surfacing and repair work

on roads in Ennis.

Last week’s announcement of a €5.7 million cut in Clare’s local roads allocation was strongly criti- cized.

Mr O’Dea told councillors that the council was in the process of identi- fying the roads in most need of re- ene

Resources, said Mr O’Dea, would be very limited in 2009 but that the council will take a ‘structured’ approach to the roadwork’s pro- eramme.

“We don’t know what allocation we are going to get. Essentially we can’t escape the fact that the resources

aren’t available,’ said Mr O’Dea.

Cllr Peter Considine (FF) said the council could maximise resources by allocating work crews to tar “short stretches of road”’.

Mr O’Dea said road tarring would form the main element of the coun- cil’s repair programme. However he warned that the council would have to carefully balance day to day re- pairs with larger, one-off projects.

“We will do that (tarring) but we also have to put resources in place to deal with bigger repair jobs. For in- stance, where do we get resources for roads that get into trouble because of sever weather conditions? It’s a bit of

catch 22 situation,” he said.

Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) said the issue of bad roads couldn’t be Tea LO) Keree

“We have to deal with this. Other- wise we’ll have motions coming in here for the next three years on pot- holes,” he said.

Cllr Brennan admitted that budget cuts meant it was unlikely that all road problems could be addressed.

Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) asked if funding from the CLAR programme was available for roads in Ennis.

Mr O’Dea said the CLAR pro- gramme was not applicable to En- ah

THE bank holiday weekend will see people in east Clare getting on their feet and their bikes.

The very first running of the East Clare 12K takes place in Kilkishen on bank holiday Monday next, May as

It’s open to runners, walkers and cyclists over a very picturesque course on the shores of Cullaun Lake and with shade from the – hopefully – hot sun through two kilometres of the walk which wends through Cul- laun Wood.

The walkers will have a water or snack stop at Cullaun House which isina beautiful setting on the shores

of the lake. One steep hill towards Craggaunowen Ring Fort will be a challenge for the cyclists to rise to.

“The running competition will be very competitive as there are valua- ble sponsored prizes for the first four men and the first four ladies home. There will also be spot prizes for the walkers and cyclists,’ sais Pat Nev- ille, one of the organisers.

‘There is a raffle for seven days ac- commodation in a holiday apartment in Sunny Beach Bulgaria for anyone who collects €150 or more by way of sponsorship for the Irish Cancer Association. Of course you can also take part on the day with the appro- priate entry fee or with a donation to the association,” the spokesman

Sr nLGe

Registration takes place in the GAA Clubhouse on the day between llam and 12 noon. The individual entry fee 1s €10, a family can participate for €20. The walkers and cyclists will get on the road at 12 noon and the runners have a scheduled start at 12.30pm

Entries from all over the county and beyond are expected with all proceeds going to the Irish Cancer Association.

Pat said the organisers want to thank everyone who has supported the event “and particularly our main sponsors Lenmac Services”.

Sponsorship cards are still availa- ble and will be posted to anyone who

calls 087 9691415

All sponsorship cards and receipts must be handed in at registration on the day, to qualify for any raffles or other items such as tee-shirts. “This is very important as all moneys to the Irish Cancer Association must be forwarded within 20 days of the event and nobody likes chasing peo- ple for money after an event,’ said le