Limerick man will not move despite shooting

A MAN who was shot and wounded in the latest Southill feud in Limerick said last night: “They won’t drive me out of my home.”

Anthony Kelly, 44, brother of the late Alderman Mikey Kelly, told how two gunmen ran up and fired at close range as he stood outside his house in O’Malley Park.

The shooting happened shortly after 11pm on Thursday night.

He said: “I know who they are. There were two of them. They had two full length shotguns, one was an automatic. I was standing behind a wall outside 121 O’Malley Park. There had been trouble earlier on and the windows of that house and a house across the road, where my brother lives, were burst in.

“They fired six or seven shots and I was hit by a ricochet. They ran off through the back of the houses and jumped over a wall. They were only about 10 yards away from me when they fired. I know them.”

Mr Kelly said there have been previous attempts to shoot him.

He left the Mid-Western Regional Hospital as soon as his wounds were treated.

“I needed to get back home to protect my family as soon as I could,” he said.

A member of the Casey family, who are based in the Clonlong Halting site, near Southill, was shot and wounded in O’Malley Park on Thursday afternoon.

Gardaí believe the attack on Anthony Kelly was in reprisal for that incident.

There have been violent attacks involving associates of the Kelly and Casey families over a number of years.

There are extra garda patrols due to the increased tensions in the area.

Anthony Kelly, who ran the M&A Security company with his late brother, Mikey, has installed an elaborate security system in his home.

Mikey Kelly died last year from a bullet wound to the head. Gardaí believe it was self-inflicted.

After his death a newspaper said a gun had been placed in his coffin. The family obtained an exhumation order and no gun was found in the coffin.