Woman gets two-year suspended term after four-hour stand-off

A house was barricaded with a stove as a woman armed herself with a knife and three men armed themselves with implements including golf clubs, an iron bar, and a machete, and taunted gardaí during a four-hour late-night stand-off with gardaí.

The woman involved in this violent disorder — Chloe Walsh, aged 23, of 3 Knockbrogan, Bandon, Co Cork — yesterday received a two-year suspended jail sentence.

While a television was thrown out through an upstairs window at the height of the violence, Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin accepted from Garda evidence that Walsh was not involved in the most serious aspects of the incident.

Sergeant Joseph Maher outlined the background to the violence, which occurred in and around a house at Old Spangle Hill, Cork, when he gave evidence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Members of the Regional Support Unit had to forcibly enter the house which was barricaded with a stove and various debris.

Sgt Maher said the two men were given opportunities to leave but they would not come out. They continued to be aggressive and the Regional Support Unit had to use Taser and pepper spray to arrest them.