14 feuding Travellers withdraw appeals against severe sentences

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.