A man who burned his family council home after his wife and children left him has been given a four-year prison sentence by Judge Frank O'Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
But Judge O'Donnell suspended the start of the sentence to December 16th, 1999, when he will review the case.
James Byrne was found by a garda sitting on a wall across the road, watching the £31,000 house go up in flames.
He later told his wife what he had done. Their personal possessions were also destroyed.
Byrne (36), of Glenavon Park, Ballybrack, pleaded guilty to arson at his home on October 14th, 1995.
