Members of two Limerick families embroiled in a three-year dispute ended the row yesterday, when they shook hands outside Limerick Circuit Courthouse.
The gesture was made after Timmy Casey (29), Clonlong, Southill, Limerick, admitted, threatening to kill Anthony Kelly outside his home in O'Malley Park on March 11th last year.
Mr Kelly is a brother of the late Limerick alderman, Michael Kelly, who died in June 2004.
The self-confessed criminal died four weeks after he received a mystery gunshot wound to his head. His family have continued to deny the gunshot wound was self inflicted and claim he was shot by a lone gunman. Nobody has been charged with his death.
Anthony Kelly even orchestrated the exhumation of his brother's body shortly after he was buried to dispel certain media reports which suggested a gun had been buried in his his coffin.
Limerick Circuit Court heard yesterday there had been "ongoing difficulties" between the Casey and Kelly families for the past three years, resulting in incidents which had given rise to serious Garda concern.
On March 11th, 2005, the court heard, Timmy Casey threatened to kill Anthony Kelly outside his home while he was giving an interview to TV3 news about a separate incident at his home the night before.
In his threat, which was caught on camera, Casey warned the father-of-six children that he was going to murder him and bury him with his brother Michael.
Counsel for the State John O'Sullivan said the threats were particularly upsetting for Mr Kelly as they were issued "not long after his brother's death".
When called to the witness box Anthony Kelly admitted to Judge Caroll Moran the difficulties between the families but stressed there "has been no hassle" for the past three months.
"I was given an undertaking before today that there would be no more trouble and I accept it. I don't want anyone going to jail. My family and the community are living in peace now and it wouldn't help things if anyone went to jail," said Mr Kelly.
The court heard that Casey, one of eight children, had 29 previous convictions, and was subject to the terms of two separate suspended sentences at the time of the offence in March last year.
One of the suspended sentences was imposed just three weeks before he threatened to kill Mr Kelly, the court heard.
Taking into account Casey's guilty plea, Judge Moran, who also acknowledged Mr Kelly's "very Christian attitude", imposed a 12-month suspended jail sentence.