A brawl during which a hatchet, a pitchfork, shovels and a stake with a nine-inch nail driven into it were used as weapons began as a family row.
It grew from a couple squabbling after a night out to a fullscale street melee involving members of the O'Driscoll and Kahn families, Cork Circuit Criminal court heard yesterday.
One man was stabbed through the eye with a pitchfork, losing his sight and suffering serious brain damage which has left him permanently disabled.
Patrick O'Driscoll (42), his nephew, Michael O'Driscoll (28), Colm Deane (28) and John Paul Kahn (19), who all lived in The Glen area of Cork City at the time of the incident on July 14th, 1996, pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm. Deane and Patrick O'Driscoll also admitted causing £270 damage to a Garda patrol car.
Det Sgt John Quilter said a row began between Mr Philip Kahn jnr and his wife, Ms Noreen O'Driscoll - Michael's sister - during a night out.
Ms O'Driscoll later left the flat at Errigal Heights where she and her husband lived, taking their two young children with her. Members of the O'Driscoll family then went to the house and assaulted Mr Philip Kahn.
"Michael O'Driscoll had a hatchet and hit Kahn on the head and arm with it," said Sgt Quilter. "He had to go to hospital for stitches to his eye and face injuries."
John Paul Kahn, who was then 16, went after the O'Driscolls when he saw blood in his brother's flat. In a statement he told of meeting Michael O'Driscoll, who had a shovel and a stick with a nine-inch nail driven into it.
"He went for me with the stick. I could see him swinging at me. I picked up a pitchfork and caught him with it," said Kahn.
O'Driscoll was stabbed through the left eye and lost the sight in his eye. Brain injuries had left him with physical disability in his right side and he would be unable to work again.
Mr Philip Kahn snr also went to Comeragh Park, where he saw his younger son running away. Patrick O'Driscoll and Colm Deane then chased Mr Kahn snr, who took refuge in a Garda patrol car. His pursuers smashed the window to get at him.
Deane had to have 76 stitches in facial wounds he received during the brawl. Kahn, Sgt Quilter agreed, over-reacted "out of misguided family loyalty" when he was a very young "hothead" but he was now working full-time.
Judge Anthony Murphy said "generally people who use cleavers, slashhooks and pitchforks as weapons go to jail for a very long time".
But the assaults happened 2 1/2 years ago and there had been no further trouble. He sentenced all the defendants to four years' jail, but suspended the sentences.