IT WAS in the early hours of a Monday morning. There was a gale force wind blowing but Sean Keane didn't take much notice until he heard the kitchen window crash to the floor.
His younger brother, Patrick, went to investigate. He put on his wellingtons and went to the kitchen to see what damage was done. Five masked men armed with iron bars confronted him.
Sean Keane was 70 at the time. His brother Patrick was just two years younger. They had decided it was time to retire from farming the rough land, inherited from their father, at the foot of Mount Brandon.
The brothers, both bachelors, brought their cattle to the mart. The estimated £10,000 sale was their pension fund. It was locked away in a biscuit tin "out of harm's way".
"We were farmers, only carrying the day. There was no talk of banks then. People didn't have much. But we had decided to get out of farming and we sold the cattle. The money was locked away, we thought it was safe. But they would have found anything, they wrecked the house. It didn't take them long to break the locks. What we had, they carried," says Sean Keane.
"Sure, I tried to fight them and that is why I got the killing. I tried to save the house, but there were five of them and they were too young," Sean explains.
After being severely beaten, the Keane brothers were tied up and thrown on a bed. Patrick eventually managed to break free and raise the alarm. Gardai set up a checkpoint in Tralee, but the gang broke through. The car was later found crashed in Sligo.
Two men were arrested and jailed for 10 and 14 years respectively for the attack. Their sentence was quashed four years later, and a retrial was ordered. Two vital witnesses in the case had died in the meantime, however. And the retrial did not go ahead.
It is 10 years since the attack took place but the Keane brothers still have nightmares about their ordeal. They live in constant fear of being robbed again.
"The doctors kept me for a week in hospital and tried to keep me for another one, but there wasn't a window in the house left after them so I could not stay.
For years afterwards I would get a fit of shivering from my heel to my head. I never thought it would go away, but now I only get it at night time. When I am in bed, that is when I am in dread of them. I get nightmares about it all. Any time I hear a noise, I fear the worst.
"When I hear about someone else being attacked, it brings it all back. I think about it all the time really."
As a result of the robbery, Sean and Patrick have been forced to stay in farming.
"There is nothing soft around here. We worked hard all our lives to make that monkey. They took our life savings, says Sean Keane.
"We had kept some sheep, if you retired altogether you'd die. If it wasn't for the sheep we would have nothing much to live on. There was no compensation or anything after the raid and I think that is something that the Government should do.
"If those men came back now, there would be nothing to take," he says.
The Keane home, just outside the village of Cloghane, overlooks Brandon Bay and the Conor Pass. It has a view outsiders are prepared to pay tens of thousands to see for a couple of holiday weeks a year. But the absentee owners, or white settlers, as the local people call them, have by their absence left the elderly in the area even more isolated and vulnerable.
"I remember a time when there were 12 families in this area. Now there are no children. Most of the houses around here are holiday homes. They paid £100,000 for a bungalow over the road. We don't see much of the owners.
"The rest of the houses have bachelors like us living in them. There are no women around here. They all emigrated to England. I don't have many neighbours but what few there are do their best for us."
Gardai from Dingle patrol the area, bringing some comfort to the Keanes. The door of their two storey stone house has three bolts. "But what use are they when they come in the window," he says. The brothers also have a dog.
"We never keep anything in the house any more. So they have no reason to come back, except to kill us.
"I don't know what kind of people do these things, but it seems that the same people are doing it again and again. I don't think the gardai can do much about it. They are no sooner in jail than they are out again. If there were a couple of them hung, it might quieten them. That's the only way, I think."
The farm organisations and the rural development group, Muintir na Tire, are to meet the Minister for Justice to discuss the recent upsurge in violent attacks on elderly people in rural areas.
Ms Owen will meet Muintir na Tire today and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association and the Irish Farmers' Association tomorrow to discuss ways of tackling the problem of rural crime. The meetings were called "after a spate of attacks on the elderly in Cos Longford, Galway and Roscommom.
The ICMSA has called for longer opening hours and increased personnel in rural Garda stations to help tackle the problem.
It has also called for extra resources for the Community Alert Scheme, which is currently operating in almost 800 communities around the country.
"Elderly people living in remote areas are soft targets for mindless thugs who have abandoned urban crime because of the increased security awareness of the business communities and residents of towns and cities," said Mr Dan McCarthy of the ICMSA.
"The elderly population in rural Ireland is growing and this sector will continue to expand well into the next century. The resources for dealing with rural crime will have to be increased if the elderly are not be left as sitting ducks for criminals.
"Current personnel in Garda stations are overstretched. We need more Garda personnel in rural Ireland and we need more patrol ears to give gardai a real presence in these areas," he said.