An ongoing feud between two splinter groups from the same Traveller family, during which guns were used in skirmishes here and in England, has led to the imprisonment of a man for three years.
Patrick Ward (32), Riverside, Galway, and Corrach Buí, Rahoon, Galway, had denied seven charges relating to a threat he allegedly made to kill his cousin, John Ward, Stoke-on-Trent, England, while armed with a sawn- off shotgun and a machete at Rinn Luachra, Ballybane, Galway, on March 30th.
As the trial was about to start at Galway Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, Ward pleaded guilty to possession of a double-barrel shotgun and a machete at or near Ballybane, and the jury was discharged.
The court heard that a feud between two factions of the same clan had led Patrick Ward to avenge the shooting of his brother, Laurence Ward, at an an illegal fist fight in Manchester, England, last year. The shooting, it was alleged, was carried out by a member of his cousin's faction of the clan. John Ward had not been injured.
Judge Raymond Groarke sentenced Patrick Ward to five years for possession of the sawn-off shotgun and to a concurrent three years for possession of the machete. He suspended the final two years of the sentence.
