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.