Gerrit Isenborger offered his services as "an instructor of archery, lasso, knife and tomahawk throwing" when he applied to work at a wild-west style ranch in Co Leitrim.
Instead, the "Leitrim Cowboy", Mr Michael Hehle, an Austrian, asked him to restore a derelict cottage in Co Cavan, with a view to converting it into an accommodation centre for tourists visiting his "Drumcoura City" riding centre in Ballinamore.
The relationship between the German and the Austrian quickly turned sour, however, and Mr Hehle attempted to evict Isen borger and his terminally ill mother.
The arrival of the bailiffs on a January day in 1997 resulted in scenes which would have graced any gun-toting western.
During a 44-hour siege, Isenborger holed himself up in the cottage with his dying mother, shot and injured the Cavan county sheriff, Mr Thomas Owens, and fired shots at two bailiffs. Gardai gathered outside the cottage and tried to reason with him but without success.
Mrs Pauline Prowe Isenborger, who had cancer and was bedridden, died during the drama. She had vowed to end her own life if bailiffs ever came to the cottage, and her son had agreed to give her the tablets when this happened.
"I always kept her away from this because I said it was impossible," he said afterwards. "But she was right, and when she said `What if they come?', I said `You can take them'. So I had to promise her." On January 15th, Isenborger had feared that his mother was going to die on the roadside. When he saw a bailiff taking a heavy sledge-hammer from the boot of a car, he lost control. After a brief conversation with the county sheriff and one of the bailiffs, he went into the house, came out quickly and started firing shots from an ancient rifle.
"We agreed that when she heard the first round being fired she would take them [the tablets] and when I came back she was in a coma," said Isenborger.
Isenborger had lived with his mother in the "hovel" at Bawnboy for several years. His mother had a doctorate in philosophy and had made television and radio documentaries in Germany during the 1950s.
In June 1994, Isenborger had moved from Galway to Co Cavan after promising to restore the neglected cottage and out-buildings on behalf of Mr Hehle. Isenborger had written to Mr Hehle in May 1994 offering his services as "an instructor in archery, lasso, knife and tomahawk throwing" at his Leitrim ranch.
Later, it was suggested by the Austrian that Isenborger run a guest-house, with a riding school attached, in Boyle, Co Roscommon. However, this idea was later replaced by a proposal to convert the disused Cavan farm into "a tourist branch for Drumcoura".
Isenborger was allowed to live rent-free in the cottage while he carried out the renovations, but relations between the two soon broke down. In a letter to Mr Hehle in December 1994, Isenborger maintained that he had worked on the property, but that Mr Hehle's proposals to use it as as accommodation for people on trekking holidays from Drumcoura City never materialised.
"Where are the guests? And furthermore, I have to fight for every bit of support, and rarely get it," he wrote. In July 1995, Mr Hehle's legal efforts to evict him began when he secured possession of the house. The deadline was extended on a number of occasions and, in October 1996, a civil action by Isenborger against his employer for £30,000 damages for breach of contract and work carried out was dismissed by Cavan Circuit Court.
Increasingly desperate, Isenborger sent letters in December 1996 to the then president, Mrs Mary Robinson, the Taoiseach, and the Department of Justice.
More than a year later, his frustrations finally boiled over and yesterday his actions cost him a five-year jail sentence.