Mr John Carthy told Abbeylara Handball Club members he would "bring down the gun and shoot them" if they continued to stop him using the local handball courts, the Barr Tribunal was told this afternoon.
The tribunal, which is inquiring into events surrounding the shooting dead of Mr Carthy by gardai during a siege at the Carthy home in Abbeylara in April 2000, was told that the threats were reported informally to gardai by members of the club.
The tribunal also heard that concern about Mr Carthy's possession of a shotgun was made informally to local gardai by members of the McCormack family who ran a pub and petrol station in Abbeylara.
The public relations officer of the handball club, Mr John Gilligan, said he was telephoned in mid-1998 by Mr Packie McCormack who told him of threats which Mr McCormack said had been made to a number of youths at the handball alley.
The threats were to the effect that Mr Carthy would "bring down the gun and shoot them" Mr Gilligan explained, adding he believed that: "if Packie told it to me then it had to have happened".
Mr Gilligan told the tribunal the young members of the club may have had difficulty in playing against Mr Carthy because of his attitude of always wanting to win and to play on until he did.
Mr Gilligan said that having consulted club chairwoman Ms Mary Smith, and secretary Ms Anna O'Reilly, he rang the gardai at Granard "and asked if there was any possibility of taking the gun off him for a period."
He later found out that the gun had subsequently been removed from Mr Carthy but he was told by Garda Oliver Cassidy that unless somebody made a formal statement of complaint the gardai would ultimately have no option but to give the gun back.