Army ‘to help house Moyross horses’

DEFENCE Minister Willie O’Dea yesterday came riding to assistance of the Moyross light cavalry whose members have been shot at and kidnapped in the Limerick feud.

Horse enthusiasts “Fat John” McCarthy and Kieran Ryan were before Limerick District Court for illegally having animals stabled behind their houses in Moyross.

But during the hearing the Department of Defence emerged like a knight in shining armour on the Moyross horizon.

Judge Tom O’Donnell was told that the Department of Defence and Mr O’Dea have offered to make land owned by the defence forces near Moyross available to the horse owners as part of the regeneration programme announced for Moyross.

Mr McCarthy survived an attack in August 2000 when a one-legged gunman, Roy Woodland, opened fire on him with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

Bullets raked his house as McCarthy and friends sat in the front garden on a summer’s evening. Kieran Ryan and his brother Eds were at the centre of a mysterious kidnap incident in January 2003 and surfaced at a Garda station hours after gang boss Kieran Keane was murdered.

Kieran Keane was suspected of the murder of the Ryan brothers father, Eddie, in the Moose Bar in November 2000.

Sgt Derek Smart told yesterday’s court hearing that the two defendants kept horses without licence in stables built behind their council houses in Moyross.

McCarthy kept two horses at his home at Cliona Park and Ryan kept three horses at his home at Craeval Park.

The Ryans had horses all their lives and McCarthy had horses for 20 years.

Complaints had been made to the gardaí by local residents about the horses going onto green areas where children played. The horses had also blocked people using footpaths.

Sgt Smart said the Department of Defence has offered to make 100 acres of land available at a former Army camp at Knockalisheen which is less than a mile from Moyross. Mr O’Dea had offered the Army lands to help with the equestrian programme which is being supported by the regeneration plan for Moyross.

However, Sgt Smart said it will take six to eight months before the Army lands will become available as there were statutory matters involved.

Judge O’Donnell adjourned the matter until next Wednesday to allow the two horse owners find alternative accommodation for their horses until such time as the Army lands are ready for use.