Farmer drove at speed into station after gun licence refusal

A sheep farmer was so enraged by a garda refusal to give him a gun licence that he drove a tractor at speed into the yard of a Garda station, causing a retired officer who was gardening there to leap onto a flower bed.

The man also threatened to get a gun to sort local gardaí out.

At Westport District Court yesterday, Judge Mary Devins was told that John Burns, aged 62, from Lanmore, Liscarney, Westport, Co Mayo, drove at former garda Frank Kelly in the grounds of the local station, nearly pinning him to a wall and forcing him to jump for safety onto a raised flowerbed.