14 feuding Travellers withdraw appeals against severe sentences

By Donal Hickey

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

FOURTEEN men who had been convicted of offences arising from a Traveller feud in Co Kerry, yesterday withdrew their appeals against the severity of prison sentences.

There was a strong Garda presence both inside and outside Tralee Courthouse, for the hearings before Judge Carroll Moran. People were searched on entering the building for the special sitting of the Circuit Criminal Court.

The atmosphere was far more subdued than that which pervaded the tension-filled Tralee District Court sittings at which the men had been sentenced on November 13 last.

The appellants were among 30 people who appeared at the District Court, where 18 received prison sentences, eight received suspended sentences and two were fined.

Barrister Brian McInerney, representing several of the appellants, asked Judge Moran that a number of named men be accommodated in different prisons, saying there was "a reason" for the request.

The judge said he had no power to grant the request, but recommended that it be complied with.

Michael Quilligan, Martin Quilligan, Chris Fitzgerald, Denis Fitzgerald, John Casey and Jimmy Quilligan are to be held in Portlaoise Prison, while Christopher Quilligan is to serve his sentence in Cork.

Many of the key players in the bitter feud, which has been going on since last May, are behind bars, serving sentences ranging from four months to 20 months.

All had pleaded guilty to a series of charges related to internecine feuding between the Quilligan and Coffey clans who are supported by other Traveller families in the Tralee and Castleisland areas.

Dramatic evidence was given, last month, of how cars had been rear-ended, of a riot at the Mitchels Crescent area of Tralee and of how Travellers from Cork got caught up in the violence in which several cars and windows of houses were smashed in July.

Weapons used included chair legs, slash-hooks, pitchforks, shovels, hurleys, golf clubs and iron bars.

A samurai sword and number of shotguns were also seized by gardaí who brought a series of charges of assault, affray, criminal damage, possession of offensive weapons and public order offences.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, December 08, 2009