60 gardaí probe killing after rival families clash
Senior gardaí appealing for witnesses to the killing of Gerard Delaney have stated that they will treat anything said to them in the strictest of confidence.
Mr Delaney died shortly after a fight broke out among up to 20 people at the Manhattan Bar on Lower Friars Walk, Ballyphehane, at around 12.15am yesterday.
Gerard Delaney became involved in the row in Cork city late last night after a relative phoned and asked him and others for back-up in the pub.
It is understood the 51-year-old went to the pub after midnight when several relatives became involved in a confrontation with members of the Crinnion family.
He had been babysitting his grandchildren with his wife at his home in Mahon in the east of the city.
Mr Delaney’s brother Finbarr had been involved in a court case last month against 26-year-old Robert Crinnion, who was jailed for stabbing him outside his Cork home in a machete attack last February.
Gardaí have been investigating allegations that threats to kill have been made against the Delaney family linked to the prosecution.
Graffiti has been daubed on walls in parts of Cork city stating “Delaney is a rat” and there have also been claims that the family were threatened on the internet. One allegation claimed the IRA would order a killing.
“It has been waiting to kick off,” a neighbour said.
Finbarr Delaney was convicted in October 2005 for drugs possession.
The Crinnion family are well-known in Cork city for their links to organised crime and drug-dealing. Michael Crinnion was shot dead as he stepped outside the Clannad pub on Barrack Street in Cork city in 1995. His brother-in-law Kevin O’Flynn was murdered in a gun attack in 2001.
It is believed Gerard Delaney did not have convictions for serious crime and had tried to keep himself out of the family feud.
Witnesses in the Manhattan Bar have told gardaí that members of the Delaney family had asked a manager to order the Crinnions to leave the pub before the row broke out.
Gardaí believe the simmering row may have exploded because of words which may have been exchanged by rival group members at another nearby bar a few hours earlier.
They believe that, at least, “there may have been an exchange of words between some personalities” at around 8.30pm at Quirkie’s Bar on Pearse Square, Ballyphehane, less than 500 metres from the Manhattan Bar.
However, it was not until nearly four hours later that violence broke out.
Gardaí believe that at least four men went to the Manhattan Bar as a result of the previous exchanges at Quirkie’s.
It is understood Mr Delaney and relatives arrived at the pub armed with makeshift weapons, including baseball bats and iron bars, after midnight.
The violence spilled onto the road and it is believed that was where Mr Delaney received his fatal injuries.
He was taken to a house at nearby Plunkett Road — which was sealed off yesterday by gardaí — before being rushed by car to Cork University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
Gardai said the row broke out inside the bar before it spilled out on to the street and at one stage involved more than 20 members of the two families.
Gardai believe that members of the Crinnion family managed to disarm some of the Delaneys.
Two other people were injured in the fight — an 18-year-old man and a woman in her 20s. Their injuries were not life-threatening.
Two men were arrested at the pub on public order offences and later released without charge.
Detectives have appealed for witnesses to contact the garda incident room in Togher.
Gardaí cordoned off the bar and a section of road between Connolly Road and Tramore Road yesterday as forensics experts combed the area for clues to the identity of his killers.
Many neighbours were asleep at the time and said the first they heard about the killing was when they turned on their radios early yesterday morning.
Robert Sheehan, who was born in Cork but now lives in Newportin Wales, was visiting his mother, who lives close to the bar.
He said his family had not heard a thing. “My mother looked outside the house and saw the place was cordoned off. She was pretty shocked, like the rest of us,” he said.
Mr Delaney is survived by his wife Mary, and their two grown-up children Karen and Gerard. He also had two grandchildren.
* Anybody with information is asked to contact Togher Garda Station at 021 494 7120 or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111.
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