The inquest heard that on the day before the Abbeylara siege began, Mr John Carthy told a neighbour who called to his house: "The party's over. There will be no more laughing. The gardai won't be here any more."
The neighbour, Ms Alice Farrell, told the inquest she was slightly taken aback by what he had said. As she left the house, she said she heard him repeat to his mother, Mrs Rose Carthy, that there would be no more gardai at his house.
Ms Farrell said she knew Mr Carthy was a manic depressive but she never had any problems with him, as she understood him. She took him to hospital twice to be treated for his illness.
"I was never afraid of John, but I was surprised to see him get his gun back from the gardai," she said. She added that a depressed person should not have a gun and he should not have been given it back.
She said on the evening of Wednesday, April 19th, when the siege began, she heard two shots. Soon afterwards Mr Carthy's mother arrived at the door of the Walsh house where Ms Farrell was visiting. Mrs Carthy was in a hysterical state - she said John had been firing shots and she feared he would harm himself. Ms Farrell said somebody mentioned calling the gardai, and Mrs Carthy said that he did not trust them and might shoot them.
When Mr Carthy's godmother and cousin, Ms Ann Walsh, told the inquest he did not trust the gardai after a detective allegedly assaulted him, Mr Rory McCabe SC, for the State, was granted an order restraining her from naming the garda.
Ms Walsh said Mr Carthy was a bit agitated the day before the siege, but she knew he was due to see his psychiatrist the following day. She said that on the evening of April 19th his mother, Rose, arrived at her door and "said something like he'll blow his brains out".
She called the gardai at 5.20 p.m. and said Mr Carthy had put his mother out of the house. Two further calls were made at 5.32 p.m. and 5.34 p.m. to see if the gardai were on their way, and she made one of these.
She said the place was quickly "polluted" with the media and a question which still had to be answered was who contacted them so quickly.
She spoke to Supt John Farrelly, of the Garda Press Office, the next morning and asked if there was any way he could shift the media. He replied that it was better to feed them a little to keep them happy or they might come in force.
She told him the media presence was jeopardising the operation as Mr Carthy would hear the coverage on his TV or radio. She said Supt Farrelly told her the TV cable to the house had been cut but she said he would get RTE 1 and RTE 2 by using just a clothes hanger as an aerial. He also had a radio and was named on it as the man at the centre of the siege about 20 minutes before he died. He needed gentle persuasion, not this, she said.
Because the scene was preserved, the family was not allowed back to the Carthy home to get Mr Carthy's own clothes so he could be buried in them. This was very upsetting, she said.