Video footage of a dawn raid on an unofficial halting site by another clan in the Travelling community, which involved the use of slash-hooks, golf clubs and hurleys was shown as evidence to a Cork jury yesterday.
Mr Patrick "Rubber Óg" O'Reilly, Kilbarry halting site, Waterford, pleaded not guilty to charges of threatening to kill two members of the Garda Síochána and discharging a 12 gauge double barrel sawn-off shotgun at a site in Ballinure, Mahon, Cork in September 2000.
Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard gardaí were called to the halting site on September 9th, 2000 where a heated exchange was underway between members of the McCarthy and O'Reilly clans.
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin was told four carloads of the McCarthy family drove down "armed to the teeth and full of fight". When gardaí arrived they heard a loud bang which they believed to be a gunshot. They saw the accused standing behind a car waving a shotgun at the 20 or 25 people there.
According to gardaí the shotgun was partially covered in a chequered cloth and people in the field were wielding numerous implements such as slash- hooks, shovels and pick axe handles.
After six gardaí moved into the field, positioning themselves between the two feuding families. "He (O'Reilly) pointed the gun at all present and told us to F*** off that he'd kill us. They didn't pay us any attention at first and continued to fight around us," Garda O'Mahony said.
The Cork garda said when the gun was passed from the accused to his wife and on to another Traveller, he attempted to retrieve it, but O'Reilly ran after him and grabbed the gun back. "He said I'd never get the gun and to stay back or he'd kill me. I was transfixed by the image of the gun being pointed at me," Garda O'Mahony said.
He said the tense scene lasted 40 minutes and only settled once backup arrived in the form of motorcycle gardaí.
The trial continues today at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.