Cars burnt out in ongoing city family feud

A SENIOR Garda has made a fresh appeal for two feuding families in the city to ‘come to their senses’ and to engage in a mediation process that has been ongoing over recent weeks.

Detective Superintendent, Shane Cummins – Head of Crime with Galway Gardaí – issued the appeal following the latest episode in the feud which involved the burning of two cars in the city before Christmas.

Two cars that were parked in the driveway of a house at the Cluainín Estate in Inishannagh Park, Newcastle, were burnt out in the latest incident which also caused damage to the front of the house.

A number of adults who were in the house at the time – around 3.30am on the Sunday morning of December 19 last – had to be evacuated as a precautionary measure.

Galway Fire Brigade units, as well as a number of Garda patrol cars, were at the scene of the fire shortly afterwards and helped with the evacuation of the house occupants.

For the past number of weeks, a number of groups involved with the Travelling community have been trying to broker a peace deal to end a series of tit-for-tat reprisal incidents between the two families involving the burning and ramming of vehicles.

Det. Supt Cummins described the latest incident in the feud at Cluainín as reckless and warned that such actions could end up causing serious injury or lead to the loss of life.

“We are putting a lot of resources in trying to bring those responsible for these incidents before the courts – the longer this goes on the more serious the risk is of someone getting seriously injured or losing their lives,” he said.

See full story in this week’s Galway City Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download a digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie