This article is from page 1 of the 2013-07-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 1 JPG
A FATHER drove a car the wrong way around a roundabout nine times in the centre of Ennis last year, ramming into vehicles including a Garda car, a court has heard.
Bernie McDonagh Snr (46) was the driver of the car that contained a 10-year-old boy strapped into a rear seat of the car. He crashed into three vehicles including a Garda car and attempted to run over three men who fled a Hiace van in terror.
Astonishing details of a violent public order disturbance that occurred at the Maid of Érin, Ennis, on October 14 (2012), were heard at Clare Circuit Criminal Court on Friday. The court was told that a garda was used as a human shield between a man and a 16-year-old boy carrying a hatchet. Martin Doherty grabbed Garda Martin O’Brien (Ennis) to use him as “shield” as the boy brandished the hatchet, the court heard. The teenager dropped the weapon after he was pepper sprayed.
The violence witnessed at the Maid of Érin last October was sparked by an alleged incident at a wedding in Ennis some days earlier. A garda has spoken of how her “life was turned upside down” after the reckless actions of the driver on the Maid of Érin roundabout, an incident she thinks about every day since.
“It was my belief that I was going to be seriously or fatally injured,” she told the court. Garda Marie Burke said in her six years as a garda she had never seen anyone behave in such a reckless manner, adding it was a “miracle” that nobody was killed.