Sixty-four people were today given suspended sentences for their part in a feud-related riot involving around 200 people at a housing estate in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
At Mullingar Circuit Court today, 62 men and one woman adults received suspended sentences of between one and four years, while two teenage girls were given 150 hours community service in lieu of a six month prison sentence.
All had pleaded guilty before Judge Anthony Kennedy to the offence of violent disorder at Dalton Park on July 29th, 2008 and there were scenes of jubilation when he announced that all sentences would be suspended.
Most of the defendants belong to three Traveller families. On one side of the dispute were members of the Nevin family, and on the other, Dinnegans and McDonaghs.
The judge described the evidence before him, gathered through written submissions from the prosecution and defence as indicative of “criminality and lawlessness” which put life and limb at risk and resulted in “a community terrorised and property damaged.”
Having satisfied himself that strict bail conditions imposed by Judges Gerard Haughton and John Neilan at the District Court had been adhered to and had “helped to suppress” the feuding, he suspended all sentences for three years, on condition that the convicted men and woman do not engage in any further feud-related offences.
Christy ‘Ditsy’ Nevin, one of the men described as a ringleader said after the sentencing that the feud between the McDonagh and Dinnegan families and the Nevins is now over.