Former 'cattle beater' back in court

On 21 May, Patrick Byrnes (31) was jailed for contempt of court by Judge Joseph Mangan at Ennis District Court after repeatedly interrupting a Garda’s evidence, insisting, this 'was lies'.  Byrnes, with an address in Kilmihill, West Clare, but originally from the south side of Limerick City, was in court facing 4 charges after allegedly stealing a neighbours car and crashing it in a pedestrian street in Ennis town centre after a 20 kilometre car chase by Gardaí. Gardaí indicated more charges are likely.

The jeep allegedly taken taken by Byrnes

Byrnes was arrested at 4:30 on the afternoon of Wednesday the 19th of May after allegedly ramming a black Kia Sorrento jeep into a bollard and a shop front on Market Street in Ennis. He had previously allegedly taken the jeep at knifepoint from its owner Denis Considine back in Kilmihil.  Byrnes later allegedly refused to provide a blood or urine sample to Gardai at an Ennis Garda Station. After the crash, Byrnes is alleged to have reached for his knife before being restrained by the Gardai with pepper spray.

Byrens, a father of 3, has numerous previous conditions.  Formerly of Lisheen Park, Patrickswell, he was jailed in 2003 for spitting at a Guard. On 29 August that year, Gardaí were called to a disturbance at Punches’ Cross, in Limerick City, where they came across a drunken aggressive Byrnes stripped to the waist. After his arrest, he assaulted 2 Gardaí.  Appearing in court the following September, he also faced charges of possessing a balaclava, an iron bar, a rubber hose and other weapons when stopped at a Garda checkpoint on the Dock Road in early August 2003.  Byrnes insisted the iron bar and rubber hose were for beating cattle. Already with 30 convictions, Byrnes was sentence to 6 months by Judge Tom O’Donnell.

 Patrick Byrnes

In 2005, Byrnes was back in court, this time with his dad, Patrick Byrnes Senior, then 46. Father and son, along with another man, Patrick Higgins, were charged with possession of a firearm for unlawful purposes at Lisheen Park, Patrickswell on 30 May 2005. They pleaded guilty to involvement in the shooting of Edward Harty outside his home in Patrickswell by masked gunmen after mistakenly believing Harty was a passenger in a car that killed Higgins’ brother, Robert (31) who crashed his car into a ditch in Rosbrien on 25 May 2005.  The Irish Independent described the shooting as 'an escalating feud between a local Traveller family and a Limerick crime gang'. Patrick Senior and his son were sentenced to 6 years in March 2006.

Mark Connery's long career

On the 7th of May, Mark Connery (37) of Lenihan Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Court to the attempted robbery of a city centre antiques store.  On 13 September 2009, Connery and an accomplice, both masked, tried to rob Noonan Antiques on Ellen Street, when the owner Mr. Jim Noonan, grabbed a gun that was pointed at him and chased away both men.  The pistol turned out to be a blank.

 Noonan's Antiques of Ellen Street

Mark Connery was later identified by Gardai from nearby CCTV footage. He has numerous previous convictions, has never worked and has a history of drug addiction.  However, the leader of a Bedford Row drugs project gave evidence of good recent progress made by Connery. He is due for sentencing on 22 June.

In August 1987, Connery, then just 15, was involved in the killing of a 26 year old man called Christopher McInerney, in O’Malley Park.   McInerney was stabbed in the neck after he hit Connery’s father over the head with a pole. Connery and another juvenile were originally charged at a special court in Roxboro Garda station.  After being found guilty of manslaughter in 1988, Connery received a 4-year suspended sentence, which was later activated when he was convicted of other charges shortly afterwards.

Interestingly, one of Connery’s co-accused, Anthony Kiely, killed again in December 1994, when he inflicted a fatal stab wound to the heart of 23 year old Patrick McNamara in Southill.

Connery was back in the news in January 1997, when he and two friends attacked and damaged the gravestone of the late Detective Garda Jerry McCabe in Mount St. Oliver cemetery. Connery, then 24, was charged at Nenagh District Court  for causing £150 worth of damage to the headstone. Connery was also charged with riotous and violent behaviour.  For what the judge called ‘mean and disgusting’ behaviour, Mark Connery received a 10 month sentence in March 1997 for damaging Detective McCabe’s headstone.

Also convicted in relation to the damage was Melvin McNamara, who though only 17, was judged to be the ringleader. Melvin went on to unsuccessfully rob a post office in Castleconnell in October 2006.  As an aside, Melvin’s brother, Trevor, was murdered in Southill in 2002 in circumstances related to a boil-in-the-bag curry.

A "complete and utter waster"

Limerickman Kieran Cummins (22) received a 9-month sentence at Castlebar District Court last week.  Cummins, a business studies student at the Castlebar campus of GMIT, was before the court on a series of charges.

On 4th February last he was arrested at 6:20 early Thursday morning, as he walked up a residential road in Castlebar carrying an iron bar in each hand. When confronted he told the Guard to “fuck off and mind your own business”. Cummins later explained he was frustrated after being attacked by a student at a house party earlier that night.

On 24th March, Cummins met Gardaí again when they discovered him in a stolen car stuck on a residential green at 12:45 in the morning.  Cummins told the court that he had been at another house party and had passed the unlocked car on his way home.  He said he had no recollection of taking the car.  He refused to provide the Guards with a blood or urine sample at the station.

Cummins was already disqualified from driving for three years and had 10 previous convictions.  Judge Mary Devins called Cummins and ‘complete and utter waster”, adding that she had “zilch sympathy for him”. Cummins received fines totalling €2,500 and a six year driving disqualification in addition to the 9 month sentence.  Cummins was allowed serve his sentence in Limerick prison.

Cummins recently pleaded guilty in Limerick District Court to violent disorder, along with 2 others.  Cummins and his co-accused were guilty of using or threatening to use unlawful violence causing another person to fear for their life at Ballinvoher, Father Russell Road on the 28th May 2007.  Kieran Cummins is due for sentencing for that offence in July.