This article is from page 18 of the 2008-01-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
ALLEGATIONS that a war was threatened between locals in Kilmi- hil and Polish people living in the vil- lage were heard in court last week.
The suggestion that a local man pledged to start up a war between the Irish and the Polish was made at Kil- kee District Court on Tuesday.
The revelations came in the case of Robert Jernokow (22), formerly of Church Street, Kilmihil, who plead- ed guilty to possession of a knife and engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour, at Main Street, Kilmihil, on August 13, 2006.
Garda Paddy Coughlan told Kilkee District Court that Jernokow was in-
volved in an altercation with locals from Kilmihil, at 3.20am.
“In a pub earlier, a dispute arose over a game of pool. They decided to take matters into their own hands,” said the garda.
He said that the accused held “the sharp side” of a knife to the throat of a local man, for five seconds.
Garda Coughlan said the accused told gardai he had previously carried out a job on a house nearby and knew there was a knife in the front garden of the house.
“He didn’t have the knife in the pub. He acquired it after the initial row, he said.
Defending solicitor Eugene O’Kelly said there had been an incident be-
tween Polish individuals and a local family in Kilmhil previously.
Garda Coughlan said that while he was aware there had been a previous incident, it had not been reported to gardai.
Mr O’Kelly said that his client and a number of other Polish men rented a house and a local family resented this. The solicitor said his client would allege that a member of the lo- cal family threatened to kill “all the Polish in the house”’.
Mr O’Kelly said the accused would say that the door of the house had been kicked in. In July 2006, he said a member of the local family had said he was “going to kill us and start a war between the Polish and
the Irish.”
Mr O’Kelly said his client came to Ireland to work in July 2006.
He said he was living in the house in Kilmihil just one week when the windows were broken and the door was kicked in. He said he had been intimidated twice by a local man.
He said his client heard that another Polish man had been hit by a local man and he “snapped.”
‘He knew the knife had been in the garden he had been working on. He got the knife and produced it and said he wanted no further trouble. It was a very foolish thing to do. He didn’t have the experience to go to gardai. He felt if he gave a stern, strict warn- ing to people that would be the end
of it,’ he said.
‘He couldn’t stand the intimidation in Kilmihil any longer so he moved to Limerick. He has no wish to return to Kilmihil,’ said the solicitor.
Inspector Tom Kennedy told the court that gardai made enquiries of the Polish police, who said that Jer- nakow was known to them in relation to several thefts, breaking and enter- ing, punishable threats, damaging property, forgery of a document and causing bodily injury.
Judge Mangan jailed him for six months for the knife offence and six weeks for the public order matter, both sentences to run concurrently. He fixed a bond in the event of an appeal.