Dundalk man beaten to death on Christmas Eve

GARDAÍ in Dundalk are preparing a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions after a local man was seriously assaulted and died in the early hours of Christmas Eve morning.

Laurence Garvey, aged 59, of Oliver Plunkett Park, received serious head and facial injuries when he was assaulted by a man on Patrick Street close to the town centre around 12.30am.

Gardaí received a number of telephone calls saying a man was getting an awful beating. A man was seen to jump on his head a number of times, said one caller.

Despite efforts by gardaí to give him medical aid at the scene before the emergency medical technicians arrived, the man was pronounced dead at the Louth County Hospital a short time later.

Mr Garvey, who was married, is believed to have witnessed an altercation in a pub earlier in the night and gardaí are investigating a link between this and the assault on Patrick Street. There is no suggestion that Mr Garvey was involved in the earlier altercation.

A 30-year-old man from the town was arrested and questioned about the assault but later released without charge.

Meanwhile, gardaí arrested a 53-year-old man yesterday after a man in his 20s was wounded in the back when a shotgun was fired in west Dublin.

The injured man, who was one of four people in a house at Whitechapel Green, Clonsilla, was hit a number of times with shotgun pellets which were fired through a patio window shortly before 1am yesterday. He was taken to hospital in Blanchardstown and discharged after treatment.

A man was arrested and detained by gardaí. A firearm was recovered at a nearby house.