Gardaí seize weapons after riot between Traveller families

PICK-AXES, slash hooks, hammers, golf clubs and rocks were recovered after a riot between 50 Travellers in Co Limerick early yesterday morning.

Garda reinforcements had to be called in when members of two Traveller families began fighting in Kilmallock.

A number of people were treated in the Limerick Regional Hospital following the major disturbance on a housing estate in the town.

According to gardaí at Bruff and Kilmallock, who are investigating the serious incident, up to 50 members of two Travellers groups living in the town were involved in a riot at around 3am.

Extra gardaí from Limerick, Bruff, Pallasgreen and Charleville had to be drafted into Kilmallock to help deal with the serious disturbance, which continued for some time at the Riverview housing estate.

While there were no arrests, gardaí say a number of people will be charged with public order offences.

“A large assortment of weapons were seized by the gardaí and a full investigation is under way to establish the circumstances which sparked off the riot,” a garda spokesman said. A spokesperson for

Limerick Regional Hospital said the injuries of those people removed there were not life-threatening.

Members of Kilmallock Fire Brigade were called out shortly after 3am to assist gardaí in cleaning up the area after the disturbances.

Meanwhile, the ambulance services in Limerick got off to a busy start to the New Year having to deal with up to 50 call-outs, which were mainly alcohol-related.

Gardaí in Limerick City reported no major incidents and said the New Year celebrations passed off well. Ten people were arrested for public order offences, including one for criminal damage and three for drink-driving.

List of prisoners ‘on the run’ from Irish jails to be reviewed

By John Breslin

A REVIEW of the number of prisoners on the run has been ordered after it emerged the current list is riddled with mistakes and includes inmates who might be dead or were at large as far back as the 1980s.

The number of inmates unlawfully at large is 644, according to lists kept in each of the State’s 16 prisons.

But the lists have been built up over many years and have not always been updated fully, according to the Department of Justice.

There are entries for persons who went on the run in the 1980s and a considerable number who were never at large.

Sean Aylward, the director general, has ordered the lists to be examined and corrected to find out the true number who are on the run.

According to the Garda annual report, there were 126 reported offences relating to escapes from custody and a further 10 prison breaks.

The amended list will be passed on to the Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

The minister told the Dáil recently that some of those were placed on the lists in error by prison staff after, for example, a court appearance at which they got bail or when they should have been marked off after completing sentences.

Mr McDowell added: “It is also strongly suspected that there are persons listed who are either deceased, in custody in other jurisdictions or even entered on the list more than once because of the use of aliases or differing dates of birth.”

The majority of prisoners unlawfully at large are persons who failed to return from temporary release or who fled open prisons, according to the Prison Service.

Every year, a number of prisoners given temporary release at Christmas do not return at the appointed time.

Alan Murray, who killed a priest when he was in his teens and is serving a seven year sentence for threatening to kill a woman, went on the run for five days until he was picked by gardaí on Tuesday evening.

The 38-year-old was allowed out of Mountjoy Jail on Christmas Day on temporary but failed to return later that evening.

Among the most famous prisoners still absent from Irish prisons is John Cunningham, who walked out of Shelton Abbey Prison in 1996 while serving a sentence for kidnapping.

He fled to Holland where, in 2001, he was convicted on drug smuggling charges and jailed for 10 years.