Garda countermeasures, intelligence helped to defuse traveller dispute

There were clear indications of what could have followed had two groups of travellers in Navan managed to engage in conflict earlier this week. To the side of a small terrace of houses in a run-down estate was a supermarket trolley filled with rocks. In the nearby Garda station, 77 implements including knives, hammers, sporting equipment and home-made weapons were recovered and put on display.

There was nothing else on the surface to suggest that 24 hours earlier 200 travellers had gathered in the town intent on settling a bitter dispute between two extended families. Yesterday the two areas, where some relatives of these families live in settled housing, were calm.

It is understood, however, that attempts were being made at mediation. A traveller community worker expressed dismay at the scale of potential confrontation, fearing how it would be interpreted by the settled community.

Mr Michael McDonagh, who is a traveller and employed by Navan Traveller Workshops, said: "The majority of travellers don't want this, but a small minority for some reason thrive on this."

Much of the enmity relates to the death of a traveller, Timmy Joyce, in Finglas in December and to a previous death in his family in London, according to gardai and travellers. Both died as a consequence of fatal stabbing.

"There has been ongoing enmity building up among the travelling community. It has manifested itself elsewhere. Navan played host to it on Monday," Supt Eamon Courtney said.

"It has come to the surface at funerals and weddings. It is likely to erupt anywhere there's a gathering of these extended families. Good intelligence and timely countermeasures gave us a good result."

Supt Courtney stressed gardai had good relations with the travelling community in Navan; the scale of potential confrontation was new to the area; and it was largely outsiders who geared up for a "dirty fight", with the unwritten rule that any weapon could be deployed.

Navan in many respects was unlucky as it was chosen as middle ground for settling a score after "a set-to at a funeral in Longford on Sunday". It was lucky that intelligence meant that 60 gardai were in place before confrontation erupted. No arrests were made. But names were associated with weapons, which is likely to see them before the courts, he said.

Checkpoints placed between the two locations 1 1/2 miles apart led to the seizures, while the sight of Dublin-based gardai from the public order unit disembarking from reinforced vans and dressed in riot gear had a calming effect. It led to those who had come from as far away as Britain and Northern Ireland leaving town almost as soon as they arrived.

Baseball and cricket bats might seem innocuous among more obvious weapons, "but the people involved are not noted for their ability in these sports", Sgt Liam Buggy said. A slash hook might seem harmless, but those involved were "not noted for their gardening". Some items may have a valid function other than effecting physical violence but most were concealed in a way to suggest they were being saved for ill-intent.

Some were under bonnets, others in bags, and one cache was pinned up under a caravan. A machete, boning knife, hatchets and gardening implements adapted for warfare were, the superintendent added, "not something you would bring to a garden party. These were capable of inflicting serious injury and loss of life."

At Reask Court with its well-kept space where vans and caravans were parked, four travellers leaning against a trailer said they had just arrived from Dundalk and knew nothing of what had happened. At Columbans Crescent, Mr Joe Joyce, whose eight children are married and living in the same estate, said travellers had come from England and had been in a confrontation with others from Dublin, which prompted the gathering.

He was a distant relative of those who had died. His family knew who was responsible, he claimed. "It was not a Navan thing," he insisted. "The guards were only doing their job. Only for them, we were destroyed."

A community worker, Mr Michael McDonagh, added: "It's extremely sad that a huge amount of settled people will see this and it will add fuel to their prejudice. We will have to work to counteract that."

A horrible conflict within the travelling community was distracting from the genuine needs of travellers. "We were very lucky that travellers in the town did not want this. It led to a positive intervention which defused things. The Gardai played a huge role in this. It was a volatile scene, very dangerous."