Suspended sentences for men who took part in faction fight

A FACTION fight saw two gangs of men meeting in Bandon, Co Cork, in the early hours of the morning and when gardaí arrived they found a man lying unconscious and bleeding from the head with golf clubs on the ground beside him.

Sergeant Ian O’Callaghan said residents were frightened by the sound of metal clashing outside their homes on Kilbrogan Hill near the town’s courthouse and there were numerous 999 calls made to gardaí at 4.30am on October 26, 2009.

One gang came from the Kinsale area for the pre-arranged fight. When barrister Stephen O’Donoghue said on behalf of one of the accused that the group from Kinsale was out-numbered and had to flee the scene, Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said the Marquis of Queensbury rules did not apply to faction fights and that if they were stupid enough to get involved they had to live with the consequences.