The driver of a getaway car involved in the fatal shooting of Eddie Ryan Snr in a Limerick bar was sentenced to 15 years' jail for manslaughter this afternoon.
Mr Justice Henry Abbott said the sentence for the "heinous" killing of Mr Ryan reflected the "vile and outrageous proportions" that the Limerick feud had taken on.
In sentencing Paul Coffey (26), the judge described Mr Ryan's killing in November 2000 as a "quantum leap" in a feud that now involved "subversive groups acting with arms".
But he suspended seven years of the prison term for Coffey - who was described in court as a "fall guy" and "not the brightest in the world" - saying he was not the main player and was "easily led".
Mr Ryan (41) was gunned down in a hail of bullets fired by two men with handguns who burst into the Moose Bar in Limerick where he was drinking on November 12th, 2000, after the funeral of his brother-in-law.
His death, from 11 gunshot wounds, followed a series of increasingly serious gang crimes that began with a schoolyard fight between two girls from the feuding families - the Ryan and Keane-McCarthy clans.