Fears family feud may escalate after brutal death

GARDAÍ have expressed concerns that a violent feud between rival families may escalate in the coming days following the killing of a married father of two.

Gerard Delaney, 51, died early yesterday after he was beaten and stabbed multiple times outside a bar on the southside of Cork city.

Mr Delaney did not have convictions for serious crime and had tried to keep himself out of a family feud with the Crinnion family and their associates.

However, he became involved in the row after a relative phoned him while he was babysitting and asked him and others for back-up at the Manhattan Bar at Lower Friars Walk in Ballyphehane.

It is believed that, a few hours prior to the brawl, some of Gerard Delaney’s associates and members of the rival family “exchanged words” in Quirkie’s, a pub close to the Manhattan Bar.

The incident at Quirkie’s bar, at Pearse Square, Ballyphehane, escalated into bloody violence when at about 12.15am, four men, believed to be wearing balaclavas and carrying a variety of weapons, got out of a car and walked into the Manhattan Bar.

Gardaí said several people were injured during the violence, which then spilled out onto the street.

Gerard Delaney sustained stab wounds to the head, neck and other parts of the body and was severely beaten.

Mr Delaney, who lived in Mahon, was taken to a nearby house at Plunkett Road and later brought by car to Cork University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Superintendent Charlie Barry, who is leading the investigation into the killing, appealed for calm.

“I would hope that anyone involved in this incident would keep the peace and let the gardaí deal with it,” he said.

“Christmas is not a time for people to take matters into their own hands. If anyone wants to come forward and to speak to me personally, in the strictest of confidence, I am always available to them.”

There has been ongoing tension between the Delaneys and the Crinnions and their associates, with Robert Crinnion last month jailed for 10 years for a slash-hook attack on Mr Delaney’s brother, Finbarr, in February.

Gardaí have been investigating claims that threats to kill have been made against the Delaney family linked to the prosecution.

An 18-year-old man and a woman in her 20s were taken to Mercy University Hospital, where they were being treated for what was described as “non-life- threatening injuries”.

A postmortem examination was carried out on Mr Delaney’s body at Cork University Hospital yesterday by assistant state pathologist Dr Margot Bolster.

Last night, gardaí said it concluded that his death was as a result of a combination of head trauma and stab wounds.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, gardaí believe two men found dead at a flats complex in Cork city had ingested a lethal cocktail of drugs.

John Foley, 33, and John O’Donoghue, 34, were found hours apart in an unresponsive state at the complex on Christmas Day. Emergency services failed to revive the two men, who had been at a party at Rockgrove Terrace, off the Lower Glanmire Road.

Gardaí said they did not suspect foul play and had identified everybody who attended the party. They said no other illnesses had been reported, so it was unlikely that the two men had taken contaminated drugs.

Mr Foley was from Mayfield, while Mr O’Donoghue was staying at a hostel on Anglesea Street.