City feud families clashed at dole office

The son of a murdered gang leader was among a violent mob of rival family factions who clashed when they came face to face while collecting dole at the city’s social welfare office, a court heard.

The ‘long-running murderous and notorious’ Limerick feud was recalled yesterday when Joe Keane, aged 27, pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Court to engaging in violent disorder on the afternoon of April 14 last at Dominic St. His father, Kieran Keane, was abducted and murdered in 2003.

Joe Keane’s mother, Sophie Keane, widow of Kieran Keane attended yesterday’s hearing which took place in the same courtroom where five members of the McCarthy Dundon gang who murdered her husband were jailed for life in 2003 by the late Mr Justice Paul Carney.