The Tobins

This Friday, Timmy Tobin was given a 14 year sentence for a horrific sex attack last August after he pleaded guilty.  The last 5 years were suspended.

In the early hours of Friday, the 14th of August 2009, Tobin noticed a man bothering a young foreign woman who was locked out of her house. The woman had argued with her boyfriend earlier and headed off home but had no house keys with her. Tobin told the guy that he was a McCarthy and that he should back off or else.  Tobin then walked with the woman around Westfields off the Condell Road.  After attempting to kiss her, the woman kissed Tobin on the cheek. Tobin later said he felt "let down and insulted" when she brushed off his advances.

Tobin then began a horrific attack that lasted over an hour. He punched the woman in the head, knocking her into undergrowth.  The woman offered him her possessions but Tobin laughed, telling her if he gave her oral sex he would leave her be.  Tobin pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and anal rape.  During the ordeal, Tobin made the woman wash herself in a stream in an attempt to destroy any forensic evidence of the sex attack.  

At one stage, when startled by a passer-by, Tobin began choking the woman. After raping the woman several times, choking her, threatening to kill her with a rock and making her again wash herself to destroy evidence of rape, Tobin broke down crying, asking her forgiveness, saying he was drunk and didn't know what he was doing. Tobin later told Gardai he had 8 cans of beer and some anti-depressants during that day.

The then-27-year-old Tobin went home, confessed to his girlfriend, and turned himself into Gardai next morning, but not before burning his clothes and destroying his mobile phone.

The victim had already gone to the Guards with her boyfriend at this stage and also travelled to Cork for examination by the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (Limerick only has "a part-time, partial sexual assault treatment service...which sees about 40 people a year"). 

At his initial hearing at the Limerick District Court, Judge Tom O’Donnell granted bail on the Tobin's own bond of €500 and an independent surety of €5,000.

Tobin, from Hogan Avenue, Kileely, was sentenced to 14 years, with fives years of that suspended, on Friday in the Central Criminal Court by Justice Barry White, the same judge who presided over the recent Eamon Lillis trial.

Judge Barry White

Timmy Tobin has six previous convictions.  One of those is for an attack, in 2003, on an 86-year old disabled woman.  In the early hours of Tuesday, the 15th of July 2003, Timmy Tobin, then just 21 years old, and another man broke in through the back door of the pensioner's house and threatened the 86-year old with a hammer in her bedroom.  After telling her they would shoot her if she didn't give them money, they eventually left with some €515 in cash.  In January 2004, Judge Carroll Moran, sitting in Limerick Circuit Court, jailed Timmy Tobin for seven years for the break-in but suspended the final three years because of Tobin's guilty plea.  Tobin's guilty plea followed some pretty irrefutable evidence left at the scene.  Timmy Tobin cut himself on glass as he left the elederly woman's house that night, leaving blood stains behind. Later he called an ambulance, telling paramedics and the Guards that he had just been stabbed on Thomond Bridge. 

Timmy isn't the only Tobin on Hogan Avenue, Kileely, fond of aggravated burglary.  By coincidence, Joseph Tobin, also of Hogan Avenue, assaulted and robbed a retired priest in his home back in 2007.  On Tuesday, the 6th of November 2007, Joseph Tobin and James Power, of Smith O'Brien Avenue, Kileely, broke in to a house through a conservatory window in Farranshone where Father Edward Kirby, a 72 year old retired priest lived.  Joseph Tobin hit the priest on the side of the head with a mallet, while Father Kirby was also hit with a sweeping brush handle and spat on.  The two ransacked the house causing €300 in damage, stole €315 in cash and and some rings belonging to the priest.

Father Kirby had been chaplain at Florida State Prison, where, among others, the serial-killer, Ted Bundy was executed and where, the priest said, "nothing ever happened to me and I was never under threat as I moved among men who had murdered, raped and robbed."  The priest returned to Limerick City in 1998 to retire. Since the attack, Father Kirby has had difficulty walking.

At his appearance in Limerick Circuit Court, in April 2008, Joseph Tobin, then 20 years old, was also charged with stealing cigarettes from a petrol station in Thomondgate, pleaded guilty to all charges.  He was judged the ringleader in the assault on the priest, and was given a 3 year sentence by Judge Carroll Moran, while Power later received a 2 year suspended sentence.

Tragedy in Shannon - 50 years ago today

The Irish Times ran a story today marking 50 years since the crash of an Alitalia flight near Shannon Airport as it flew Naples to New York Idlewind (now JFK) airport. The flight's only scheduled stop was in Rome to pick up more passengers.  It landed in Shannon only because strong headwinds made it necessary to pick up more fuel.  After a stopover of just over an hour, when the passengers shopping in the terminals while the plane took on 7,000 gallons of fuel, it took off again at 1:34a.m. early Friday morning in cold but clear weather. 

Original Irish Times graphic from 27/2/60

The four-engine propellered aircraft seemed to lose power about a mile from Shannon airport, banked heavily to the left and crashed through the walls of the old Clonloghan graveyard adjacent to the ruins of the 10th century Clonloghan church. The explosion was heard up to 17 miles away.  The plane continued to plough through the South-East of the graveyard, destroying tombstones, and into the field of grazing sheep beyond. One eye-witness described it as "a scene from hell". A local priest, Father Thomas Comerford, who arrived on the scene soon after the crash told reports, “There were bodies scattered all over the field.  People were mixed up with the remains of the sheep the plane had killed.”

At first count, out of the 40 passengers and 12 crew, there were 27 dead, 2 missing and 23 survivors.  Bodies were found up to a mile from the crash site on the mud flats of the Shannon. The eventual death toll would be 34 - the first ever passenger deaths for the Italian national airline.  Luckily though, the Douglas DC7 was only about half full.  Survivors were taken to Ennis County Hospital and to the Barringtons and Regional Hospitals in Limerick. 

Clonloghan church and graveyard - where the plane hit

Two Italian nurses were flown into Shannon to work in the local hospitals with the survivors as there were some language difficulties between medical staff and patients.  One initial survivor, a Capuchin Monk, Father Giuseppe Cacioli, had been given the last rights amongst the plane wreckage by the local priest, Father Thomas Comerford.  The monk survived almost another week before eventually dying from his injuries in the Regional Hospital.  Another victim was the heavily-pregnant wife of a 35 year old Yugoslav baker who was travelling to join him in America – they had recently married after escaping into Italy from communist Yugoslavia.

The Mayor of Limerick, Alderman John Carew T.D. sent telegram of condolence to Italian ambassador

The official crash investigation carried out by the Department of Transport and Power found no definitive cause of the crash.  No contact was received from the plane prior to crashing, and all seemed well with the flight until a few moments before the crash

10 months earlier, the same model of Douglas aircraft – a DC7C Douglas -  also flown by Alitalia, developed propeller problems over Atlantic.  One of its four propellers finally broke off mid-flight, though the plane managed to land safely in Shannon on 3 engines.

In these early decades of commercial air travel, accidents were more common and when Shannon was a major refuelling stop for transatlantic flights.

• 9 died in a TWA crash as it approached to land in Shannon in December 1946
• 30 died in a Pan-Am crash coming in to land in Shannon in April 1948
• 28 died when KLM Flight 633 crashed after take-off from Shannon in September 1954
• 84 died on a resident Airlines flight when it crashed into the River Shannon in September 1961

Back on the street

The latest copy of the Limerick Post (20/2/10) has a short clipping about a Limerick man arrested for public drunkenness back in January. Tony O’Brien (27) was arrested outside a Spar shop on Henry Street at 7:45am in January as he lay on the ground, too drunk to stand. In the District Court last week, Judge Tom O’Donnell heard the man had previous convictions, but nothing since early 2007. O’Brien was found guilty and fined €150.


This is the same Tony O’Brien, of Baker Place, arrested nearly four years ago after Keith Ryan (23) was found dead near the path that runs under Shannon Bridge on Thursday night, 25th May 2006, after being badly beaten just 2 days before his 24th birthday.


Keith Ryan, of Farranshone, had multiple head injuries. His nose had been fractured and his face and forehead and abdomen were stamped on. He eventually died after inhaling his own blood. It later emerged that the victim had blood alcohol levels of 260 mg at the time of his death – i.e. three times the legal limit for drivers and very drunk indeed. The State Pathologist, Marie Cassidy, said that Keith Ryan's level of intoxication could explain his lack of defensive injuries – he was simply too drunk to defend himself.


Tony O’Brien and Thomas Ryan, both then 23 years old, were arrested two days later in relation to the death. Originally both were charged with assault, but later charges of manslaughter were put to the two. Thomas Ryan pleaded guilty and was subsequently sentenced to 7 years. Tony O’Brien pleaded not guilty and was sent forward for trial.


During the 7-day manslaughter trial at Limerick’s Circuit Court, in early May 2007, details of that night began to emerge. The three friends had been drinking with others in Westfields for much of the day, and sheltered under Shannon Bridge when it started to rain. O‘Brien said the victim was “drunk and cheeky” that evening. The jury also heard that O’Brien and Keith Ryan had not been getting on and there had been an 'altercation' a few days earlier.


The fight broke out when O’Brien and his co-accused Thomas Ryan went to go to a house party in Pennywell without Kieth Ryan. He tried to follow and blows were exchanged. O’Brien admitted to hitting the victim just once but only after Ryan hit him. O’Brien said Ryan was ‘fine’ when they left him. The Defence suggested another group of youths may have inflicted more serious injuries.

The crime scene, May 2006

At Pennywell, a witnessed testified that she was asked to provide an alibi for the defendants and they had arranged for their shoes and socks to be cleaned.


After 3 hours deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous verdict. Tony O’Brien was found guilty and was later sentenced to 10 years by Judge Joseph Mangan. O’Brien had 42 previous convictions.


Keith Ryan’s mother shouted at the judge as the sentences were delivered, while Keith’s brother Thomas called for the ‘evil’ killers to be punished. Keith’s younger brother, Michael, cited his brother’s violent death for his own criminal acts when he was tried for a number of offenses including attempting to burgle a jewelers shop in the summer of 2007.


In late 2009, O’Brien’s case came before the Court of Criminal Appeal and on 2nd November last that court ruled that his conviction should be set aside and a retrial was ordered. The Limerick Post (7/11/09) noted that O’Brien would be remanded in custody until the retrial begins, though obviously O’Brien has been a free man for some time now

John Devane's Libel Case

John Devane has just lost a libel action in the High Court. The solicitor took a case against Garda Inspector Seamus Nolan, retired Chief Superintendent Gerard Mahon, the Garda Commissioner, the Attorney General, the Department of Justice, the Department of Finance and, eh, Ireland. These legal proceedings, begun way back in 2002, relate to events in 1996, whereby Devane alleges he was libelled by then-Sergeant Nolan.

John Devane

Apparently, the Guards received sexual abuse complaints from an intellectually-disabled youth against the Limerick solicitor relating to Devane’s appearance as Santa at a special needs school. Devane regards the episode as a ‘witch hunt’ against him that is related to a teacher he defended from abuse claims at the same school. He insists the Guards then made libellous comments to his then-partner, Allison Carty and his sister, Áine Cuddihy. The abuse allegations have no merit, and must’ve been particularly hurtful to Devane given his own abusive childhood.

Devane’s book, Nobody Heard Me Cry, published in September 2008, details a horrific succession of abuse from the age of 8 to his early teenage years in 1970s Limerick as a rent boy in public toilets on the Dock Road. He cites being on the receiving end of abuse from, among others, several Guards and priests, perhaps feeding into his present image as an anti-establishment figure.

Devane's 2008 book

Devane has represented some 125 institutional abuse victims, and was once accused of taking fees from victims who secured compensation from the Residential Institutions Redress Board despite the fact that the redress Board itself paid the legal costs incurred. Devane insisted fees were deducted from compensation because of the uncertainty that the Redress Board would pay solicitors. The fees were subsequently returned to clients.

Devane’s own complains of abuse were not prosecuted by the Director of Public Prosecutions. His complicated personal life is illustrated by the 2005 Civil Circuit Court case whereby Devane sought to have his sister removed from his house, while his mother sought a restraining order against the same sister after death threats.

Devane is no stranger to controversy. As some went in to legal practice to “take on the establishment”, his efforts seem to bring him in conflict with Judges, Gardaí and the Law Society. Judge Joseph Managan once fined him the sum of €1 after Devane called him a ‘clown’ in the Kildysart District Court, County Clare, in 2003. In fairness to Devane, he was preoccupied with trying to reschedule a court case so he could visit his partner in hospital that afternoon.

Because Devane represents so many disadvantaged clients, he is left open to occasional accusations of encouraging those clients to lie. In a 2002 murder trial, Devane was criticised by some for advising his client to reply to Garda questions with “I can’t remember, but if I do, I’ll tell you.” After a 2008 trial for drunken driving, defendant Fiona Porter was quoted as saying “I am not taking the blame for John Devane. He lied in the court and now he's trying to make f**king money off me”. This followed an unusual defence whereby Porter alleged she drove under the influence only after catching her husband in bed with her mother, despite the subsequent revelation that her husband was behind bars at the time.

More recently, in August 2009, allegations were aired that Devane was being investigated for passing inappropriate information to a client. The client was Noel Campion and the text message Devane sent him was reportedly discovered after Campion was murdered in April 2007. Devane was subsequently cleared by the Law Society. Another ruling by the Law Society was not so welcome by Devane, in July 2008, when he was fined €15,000 after a disciplinary hearing for the relatively forgivable offence of late serving of legal documents.

More serious was the raid by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) on John Devane’s offices in February 2006 on Quinlan Street. At the time Devane suggested CAB targeted him because of his success at getting clients off but Gardai insisted it was part of a larger ongoing investigation.

Devane is quite litigious, even for a solicitor. Back in 1996, around the time he qualified as a solicitor, he took a case against AIB to the Circuit Civil Court. Devane had claimed he had been embarrassed in front of his partner’s parents on holiday in Asia when his credit card was declined. His court action failed after it emerged he had already accepted a £1,000 payment of ‘goodwill’ from the bank.

In 2006, after Devane contracted the MRSA bug, he invited the Limerick leader to his bedside in St. John's hospital. Devane, in a subsequent interview, threatened to have St. John’s hospital shut down, alleging his sickness cost him €500,000 in lost earnings.

The Limerick solicitor's list of class action and multiple client lawsuits range from the respected Residential Institutions Redress Board for abuse survivors (125 clients), and Army deafness cases (450 claims) as well as an MRSA 'superbug' suit (60 clients) to the more questionable mass lawsuit for prisoners who 'slop-out' (900 clients). Rather oddly, Devane also threatened legal action in 2001, when the Government announced plans to ban opinion polls for 7 days before an election.

Slopping out - are prisoners sick of this shit?

His work in favour of pre-election opinion polls was not Devane’s only foray into the world of politics. Though it was rumoured he was to be a Fianna Fáil local election candidate in 2001, it was in the 2007 General Election when Devane finally took the plunge, but as an Independent. His efforts to get elected to the 30th Dáil were unsuccessful though, and he received 330 first preference votes – about 0.67% of the electorate.

The highlight of his campaign was his attempt to confront Bertie Ahern with a plastic sword at the Jetland Shopping Centre on the Ennis Road, but a female Garda disarmed the solicitor prior to Bertie’s arrival. Devane told Guards, “I feel like Excalibur without my sword” as he made attempts to retrieve it.

Some years earlier, Devane had another brush with Bertie as he, somewhat comically, tried to serve a summons on Bertie on behalf of anti-war Shannon protesters.

Devane wasn’t always so antagonistic to Fianna Fáil politicians. In 1998, Dermot Ahern, then the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, relaunched the Back to Education programme. John Devane was there at the launch, with the Minister, as model of the success of our adult education system.

Long time Late Late Show watchers may also remember his appearance on show in September 2004, with fellow guest Alan Titchmarsh.

Does he remember John Devane?

Devane is undoubtedly a hard worker, primarily as a Legal Aid defence solicitor. In 2009, he earned €433,603 from the State for his Legal Aid work, placing him only 15th on the list of top earning Legal Aid solicitors. Devane estimates that 80% of his income is from Legal Aid work, giving him a healthy income of €540,000 last year.

Devane’s clients have included members of most of the families involved in Limerick’s various feuds. He has been quite close to the Kelly family in Southill, even driving Mikey Kelly home from hospital after a 2002 shooting, and remarking that Mikey Kelly, a self-confessed wife-beater, had “done a lot of good work as a public representative” and had “changed the face of politics and is a force to be reckoned with.”

In March 2006, when he represented Anthony Kelly in his attempts to have his disability payments restored, Kelly claimed Devane had even paid for most of Kelly’s holiday in Lanzarote. Devane usually acts in the role of defence solicitor but acted as a private prosecutor in 2002 when Majella Kelly, the late Alderman Mikey Kelly’s wife, complained she was sexual assaulted by Detective Inspector Jim Browne in August 2001. The private prosecution failed and Mrs. Kelly was left to pay €70,000 in costs.

Devane’s closeness to the feuding partners in Limerick led to his offer to mediate between the gangs, suggesting that, as he has “a foot in each camp”, he was ideally suited to the role. It could be argued, however, that the demand for Devane’s mediation was fuelled by the successes of the Criminal Asset Bureau against the crime gangs in Limerick.

The downside of this closeness was highlighted in August 2009, when Devane was allegedly assaulted by a senior member of the Dundon family. Despite the fact that there were reportedly about 20 Gardai in and around the District Court that day, Devane was apparently grabbed by the throat and thrown to the ground.

According to Paul Williams (Sunday World, 6 January 2010) this was not the first time Devane has been attacked. In 2003, Kieran Keane reportedly beat Devane up at his home after getting the impression that Devane bungled a bail hearing for Kieran’s brother, Christy. Though he called the Gardai, Devane refused to make a formal complaint. Similarly, after this latest attack, Devane again refused to make a complaint, despite a plea from Stephen Collins, insisting he would be ‘a dead man walking’ if he filed a complaint with the Guards.

While Devane’s fears are understandable, it is difficult to reconcile his description of himself as a “working-class solicitor”, “defending people who have acted, possibly, out of sheer desperation, out of fear and poverty, people whose lives are often a complete mess and who are completely alienated from mainstream society” with the solicitor who, for over a decade now, has gone well beyond mere legal representation to many of Limerick’s most vicious criminals.

Daniel Braddish

Earlier today, Daniel Braddish (35) was sentenced to five years by the Limerick Circuit Court for robbing a Centra store on O’Connell Street, Limerick on September 10 2009. Braddish threatened the shop assistant with a carving knife before stealing €870 in cash and €80 worth of cigarettes. Braddish, of 176, St. Munchin’s Street, St. Mary’s Park employed the services of a look-out. Apparently he came across a neighbour from the Island begging on the street. Patrick O’Brien (25), also of St. Munchin’s Street, was paid €25 by Braddish - the price of a heroin score – to act as his look out during the robbery.

Braddish has a long history of being before the courts. In May 2002, he attempted to take the rap for Christy Keane, at Keane’s trial for possession of a coal bag (nearly 20 kilos) of cannabis. Though Keane was caught red-handed, by the Guards in August 2001, Braddish insisted he was the one with the drugs. Braddish was laughed out of court and Christy Keane served 7 ½ years of a 10 year sentence, being released a year ago today.

In April 2004, Braddish unsuccessfully attempted to rob a sex shop. He threatened an employee of the Utopia Adult Shop at 7, Ellen Street, with a butcher’s knife. The shop assistant fought back with a knife of his own and Braddish left empty handed. He was sentenced to five years in Limerick Circuit Court for that crime.

Before his most recent crimes, Braddish had already amassed some 26 prior convictions. In addition, last November, Daniel Braddish was caught stealing €260 worth of groceries in Arthur’s Quay, for which he was jailed for 4 months. Coincidentally, also in October, Antoinette Braddish, also of St. Munchin’s Street, was arrested for shoplifting in ‘New Look’ on Cruises Street. Antoinette was given a six months suspended sentence after trying to walk out of the store with six pairs of jeans.

How many pairs can you hide?

It’s fitting that Daniel Braddish’s latest conviction was as a result of incriminating CCTV footage. In May 2001, his criminal case set a legal precedent in the Supreme Court. In the Director of Public Prosecutions v. Daniel Braddish (2001), Braddish managed to extricate himself from a robbery conviction. He initially confessed to the Guards that he robbed the shop in July 1997. The Guards then returned CCTV evidence to its owner. Later, the shop owner destroyed the evidence and Braddish’s legal team used this as grounds for getting him off. The still photos the Guards made of Braddish allegedly robbing the shop were deemed not to be sufficient by the Supreme Court. The Braddish case is now cited as one of the main Irish precedents for preserving evidence.

Record breakers: Limerick's unmarried mums

Figures released last Thursday show that Limerick City again had the highest percentage of unmarried mothers in the country. 53% of all births in Limerick were to unmarried mothers according to the Central Statistics Office. 36% of all Limerick births, though, were to unmarried parents living at the same address.
These figures, for April to June 2009, showed the average age of a mother in Limerick was 29.3 - the youngest average age in Ireland, while for first-time mums in Limerick, the average age was 27.3 - also an Irish record.

Strangely enough, Limerick City also had the second lowest birth rate in Ireland after Monaghan. Also, just over 5% of kids born in Limerick City were to teen mothers - placing the city 4th after Waterford City, South Dublin and Monaghan.

Historically, the numbers for Limerick tell a bleak enough story. Every year since at least 2001, Limerick has had the highest rate of unmarried mothers and, usually, the highest rate of teen mothers too.