A garda operation aimed at preventing a potentially violent confrontation between two factions of midlands-based Travellers was mounted in Longford yesterday. Gardai, some of them in riot gear and in armoured patrol vans, effectively sealed off the town with roadblocks. Supt Tom Murphy said that his office had received information that a fight had been planned between two local factions whose feud went back at least two years.
The fight at a location in Longford "would decide who was "King of the Travellers in the midlands". Firearms, machetes and other weapons were to be i, being brought to Longford to be used , in the fight, according to gardai. The checkpoints remained in place throughout yesterday morning, Supt Murphy said, and a contingency plan was in place in the event that an alternative location might be arranged for the fight. By mid-afternoon gardai were speculating that the confrontation plans had been changed.
In October, a Garda inspector confirmed for a Longford District Court judge that peace had been agreed between the parties, and it is understood that this peace was breached in Dublin last week.