FFS in all fairness
Could she not have slapped him or got the bouncer to fuck him out,
Itâs getting like America
ahh now
Letâs be careful out there
Hill st blues sergeant was always correct
After Croke ok Sunday anythingâs possible
All of these deserve shooting
https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/0725/1525398-woman-tortured-dublin/
Out on bail (all of them). Iâve a feeling theyâre looking (deservedly) at lengthy stretches,
A woman on the wireless earlier today bemoaning conditions in Mountjoy.
I hadnât the heart to tell her that itâs a prison not a leisure facility. People be strangeâŚâŚ
Jesus thatâs horrendous
Whatâs the statute of limitations on that type of claim I wonderâŚasking for a friend (@Bandage )
Fucking hellâŚdefinitely a case there for an eye for an eye punishment
The conditions in there are pretty horrendous in fairness. If you take a scumbag and just warehouse him for 3 years in a Kip with other scumbags, all you get at the end of the three years is a bigger scumbag
Iâm in agreement but Iâm also a believer in the adage that leopards spots donât change.
These nere-do-wells are never going to find the straight and narrow path. Daily in the courts thereâs scumbags with 100 convictions getting 6 months - Suspended. You manage to get yourself as a guest in Mountjoy youâre not in the Clayton.
Lock them up forever so
Niall Gilligan is 6 foot 5 apparently. Iâd have had him down for 5 foot 10.
Niall Gilligan assault verdict: We were disgusted at his acquittal, say boyâs parents | Irish Independent
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On the edge of the villÂage of Sixmilebridge in Co Clare, a couple sit in their kitchen, scrolling through pictures on their phone of their then 12-year-old son. The family dog is at their feet, their younger children playing happily as they look out on rolling green fields.
But as with many things in this story, all is not as it seems.
The images the couple scroll through are disturbing photos of the injuries to their sonâs body, sustained when he was kicked and beaten with a stick by a local sports hero, Niall Gilligan, who was acquitted last week of assault.
Some of the injuries suffered by the 12-year-old boy
Todayâs News in 90 Seconds - July 27th
One image shows the boy clutching his wrist, swollen, bulging and speckled with grass and dirt. His parents later learnt he had a fractured bone in his left hand.
Another photo shows a deep gash on the boyâs shin. A third shows blood seeping from another gash just below his elbow. There are others of bruising and scratches covering one buttock; a long, red and purple mark towards his lower back; and more bruising along the side of this body, on his arm, and bruising covering one shoulder.
It is evident from the photos that at 12 years old their son was skinny and small.
Gilligan, who admitted causing those injuries to the boy by beating him with a stick and kicking him, is a 48-year-old GAA athlete who stands at close to six-foot-five.
The photos were taken by the boyâs father when he was receiving medical treatment and were entered into evidence in Gilliganâs trial.
His defence counsel, Patrick Whyms, told the jury that most of the boyâs injuries had cleared up in a week or two, but conceded they âdonât look nice on the photographsâ.
On Wednesday, Gilligan was acquitted of assault by a jury of seven men and five women.
Former Clare hurler Niall Gilligan at Ennis court
His defence team argued that he acted in self-defence, responding to an intruder in his vacant premises, the Jamaica Inn Hostel in Sixmilebridge.
He did not realise the intruder was a child because it was dark and he could not see, and in the circumstances the force he used in self-defence was reasonable.
The jury agreed. The boyâs parents were devastated.
âStunned. Shocked. Disgusted. Deflated,â said the boyâs father, struggling for words to capture their feelings.
âWe felt we were the criminals. Just disgusted.â
Neither the boy nor his parents were named in court, in order to protect the childâs identity.
Speaking to the Sunday Independent this weekend, using the pseudonyms, Michael and Susan, the parents were keen to highlight their fears that the verdict may have consequences for other children.
Heâs not a boy who gets into trouble. All he does â all day, every day â is play soccer
âIt sets an unhealthy precedent now, because with all the will in the world, kids are going to explore abandoned buildings,â Michael said.
âIt sets an unhealthy precedent that adults may inflict this much damage on a child, under the law of self-defence.â
The day that changed their lives began much like any other day.
Michael, who worked for a software company, was working from home. Susan, a nurse, was at work.
Their eldest son had just started at first year in secondary school. He was not a boy who got into trouble, his parents said.
âAll he does â all day, every day â is play soccer. I suppose in the village you donât really have many other options, but thatâs all he does all day, every day â he plays soccer,â his father said.
âHe has a massive group of friends from a wide variety of backgrounds. He likes maths. He likes practical stuff, so he does like his woodwork. If we get an IKEA flat pack, heâd love to put it together.â
On that day, October 5, 2023, his sonâs friend called around 4.30pm and they went off to play, as they often did.
He appeared pale, and he was talking really fast. So obviously he was in shock
Some time later, neighbour Linda Quinn pulled up outside the front door with the boy, who was now wet, covered in mud and with cuts and bruises.
âShe picked him up on the side of the road and brought him home to me,â said Michael.
He transferred the boy to his own car and drove him immediately to a local VHI clinic.
âHe appeared pale, and he was talking really fast. So obviously he was in shock,â said Michael.
He told his father he fell off a bike doing wheelies, but Michael didnât believe him. He rang his wife on the way to the clinic.
âMy exact words to her were, âWhat Iâm seeing here doesnât match with what heâs telling meâ,â he said.
The boy eventually confided to the medical team what had happened.
âHeâs been assaulted,â they told his father.
Michael found Niall Gilliganâs number and rang him from the emergency department of University Hospital Limerick, where his son had been referred.
âIâm in A&E with my son who you just viciously assaulted,â he said. According to Michael, he did not engage.
Gilligan, from Kilmurry, just outside Sixmilebridge, was described in court as a family man with young children.
A farmer, publican and auctioneer, he is widely known in the area for his hurling prowess. He helped Clare to win an All-Ireland hurling championship and two Munster titles.
The property had been repeatedly vandalised, and he was concerned about arson
He was arrested by arrangement in February 2024 and presented gardaĂ with a prepared statement.
His account was read out to the jury when his trial for assault causing harm to the boy opened at Ennis Circuit Court earlier this month.
He said he bought the Jamaica Inn Hostel, a long-vacant building, in 2022, intending to sell it on.
The property had been repeatedly vandalised, and he was concerned about a possible arson attack because of local â and untrue â rumours that he planned to lease the hostel to house asylum-seekers.
Against that background, he went to the Jamaica Inn Hostel that day, and then realised he âwasnât alone in the buildingâ.
He picked up a stick from the ground. In the hallway, he heard voices and saw two people running away.
âI then heard footsteps fast coming behind me, over my right shoulder. I felt I was going to be attacked â so to protect myself I drew out with the stick on two occasions and then kicked out twice,â he said.
He grabbed the youth out of the building, they got entangled âin the darkâ and fell on top of each other on a slippery path under the pine trees, he said. He walked the âyouthâ to the front gate, warning him to ânever again enter my propertyâ.
His statement conflicted in several respects with an account given by Michael and Susanâs son and by his then 13-year-old friend, both of whom were cross-examined and testified by video link as the main witnesses for the prosecution.
But the central conflict was that the boys said the 12-year-old was attacked outside the building, when it was still daylight.
We always told him we have to do things right â by the letter of the law
The 12-year-old said they were there to explore what they thought was an abandoned building, admitting it was their third time in the property. They saw a man and ran. The 12-year-old slipped while making his escape, and when he tried to get up, the man âwhacked me on the legâ.
Medical reports show the 12-year-old had a fractured bone in his left hand; a 2cm wound to his right forearm; a 2cm wound to his right shin; bruising to his right shoulder. Doctors believe he lost consciousness briefly during the beating. The boyâs 13-year-old friend, who got away, testified that he could hear his friend shouting and the whacks of the stick.
The prosecution had called Gilliganâs evidence âa self-serving prefabricated storyâ. But the jury ultimately believed his account that, as his defence counsel put it, he was under siege in the dark and did not know he was dealing with a child.
After the verdict, the parents went home, got a Starbucks for their son and broke the news to him in their kitchen.
He could not understand it, the couple said.
âWe always told him we have to do things right â by the letter of the law â and all you have to do is tell the truth and weâll get the right outcome.â
But the family are left processing a disquieting verdict that acknowledges their child was beaten, but suggests the circumstances in which the beating was administered were justified.
I would have understood if he lost patience and lashed out once
Michael and Susan say their son and his friend were not responsible for the years of vandalism at the Jamaica Inn Hostel, as was suggested. They admitted to visiting the hostel three times and letting off fire extinguishers and taking a set of keys.
Asked what Gilligan should have done, Michael said: âI would have understood if he lost patience and lashed out once. Not saying itâs OK, but I wouldâve understood that.
âBut what he should have done was put our son into his car and brought him up to me. Or phoned the guards and let the guards bring him to me. That was the rational [thing to do]â.
Their only legal option is to take a civil case, but they have no appetite for that.
Mostly, they are concerned about their son. He missed a lot of school because of injuries, attending a fracture clinic and getting his stitches out, according to Susan, and his hand is in a splint.
They believe he was âtraumatisedâ by the beating.
He told a garda specialist interviewer: âSometimes I just randomly think about it, and sometimes I have dreams about it, or I wake up and I think about it.â
But he did not want to speak about what happened to his parents.
âSo we didnât speak about it,â said Michael. âOnce he made his [garda] interview, that was it. We said we wouldnât ask questions. We sent him to counselling. Weâre trying to protect him for the future.
âYou donât know how this might play out in someoneâs head when theyâre older â especially living in a village where heâs going to run into him [Gilligan] at some point.â
Gilligan declined to comment at this time. An Garda SĂochĂĄna said they cannot comment on matters before the courts.
He is six foot any way but close to 5â10 than 6â5
Well he was trespassing i suppose
I canât get over that they think its grand for the young fella to be just wondering around the village in the dark, in the middle of winter vandalising places.
Did you ever explore abandoned buildings as a young lad??, or building sites etc
I havenât followed the case but you wouldnât batter a 12 year old for trespassing
Thats for townies,i wouldnât have had time for such pleasures.
Thatâs grim reading
Any fucker continuously trespassing after getting told not to, is fair game, as the courts have shown