'My son was denied justice': Dad's heartbroken plea to DPP at vigil for student Joe Drennan

Family and friends tell UL vigil concurrent sentence means hit-and-run driver will serve no time at all for killing Joe Drennan

Friends of the late University of Limerick student Joe Drennan at the vigil protesting the concurrent sentence imposed on the hit-and-run driver who killed him. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

A vigil held in Limerick on Thursday for Joe Drennan heard that he was “denied justice like he was denied the rest of his life”.

Family and friends gathered with students on the University of Limerick campus to support calls for an appeal against the sentence for gangland criminal Kieran Fogarty, who killed Joe in October 2023 while driving dangerously.

Last week, Fogarty, aged 21, of Hyde Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death and was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

However, the sentence will run concurrently to the eight years he was already serving for firearms offences, meaning he will serve no additional time for the death of Joe Drennan.

Joe’s father, Tim Drennan said his son was killed horrifyingly and got not justice.

Joe Drennan's parents Tim and Marguerite Drennan listening to journalism lecturer and course director Kathryn Hayes at the Joe Drennan vigil at the University of Limerick on Thursday. Picture: Brendan Gleesin

“He was a very good human being, the total opposite of the man that killed him. Joe was never involved with any criminality in his life, so he shouldn’t be involved with any in his death, that’s the way we see it,” he told the Irish Examiner.

“It’s just horrifying and maddening, the fact that you could do something like that and not have to spend a day in jail, not one day, to account for what you did, it’s unbelievable.”

To get justice for Joe, the Drennan family has set up a petition which calls for the reform of consecutive sentencing laws in Ireland.

Mr Drennan said his son, Richard, contacts the Director of Public Prosecutions every day to get a response on the appeal to Fogarty’s sentence.

“There’s no justice. The DPP hasn’t given us an answer yet. They have their own way of working and nobody seems to be able to get through to them. They make up their own mind and their own time,” he said.

“You shouldn’t have to fight for justice. It doesn’t make sense in a civilised country that you should have to fight for justice.”

Emma McCarthy, Alison Reeves, and Holly O'Sullivan taking part in the vigil for Joe Drennan at the University of Limerick on Thursday. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

There is not a day that goes by where Mr Drennan does not remember his son’s smile. He said: “He was always smiling or laughing and he had a great weight about him for talking, he was just a funny fella.”

As a large crowd gathered in a circle, Joe was remembered by two close friends, Síofra Grant and Ellie McCarthy, who comforted one another while holding signs calling for ‘Justice for Joe’.

Ms Grant was shaking as she fought to hold back tears.

“His family and his friends were promised justice on January 13 and they were denied it, just like he was denied the rest of his life,” she told the crowd. “He was left behind. Please, appeal to the DPP, he deserves justice and so many do.”

Joe’s mother, Marguerite Drennan, told the Irish Examiner: “He just wanted everything to be okay in the world. That judge the other day, he gave us a kick in the teeth. [Joe] was kind and funny, he was courageous.

“He was just the bell of our house and kept everything going. He was so good, he was a good lad, he was a good lad.”

Pictured in happier times, Joe Drennan and one of his close friends Ellie McCarthy. Ellie and Síofra Grant were at the vigil at UL on Thursday. 

Joe Drennan, a fourth-year journalism student in UL, was killed while waiting for a bus after his shift in local restaurant, La Cucina.

Fogarty was already jailed for eight years for firing an illegal automatic firearm at the front of a house where children played in Limerick City in April 2023.

It was while on bail for this offence six months later that he killed Joe Drennan, aged 21, and wiped the evidence off his car before driving away.