THE case in which 34 members of the Ward traveller family are charged with offences arising out of two days of sporadic violence with another traveller family resumed in Tuam District Court yesterday after a six-week adjournment. The violence developed at the time of Ms Bernie Mongan's funeral last June.
Judge John Neilon said video evidence, which was to show that the Wards and the McDonaghs had been organising bare-knuckle boxing matches, was not required.
At one stage during the hearing, the judge reacted to suggestions that the row had erupted over perceived disrespect for a Ward family grave by a member of the McDonagh family.
Judge Neilan said he did not accept this supposed sensitivity within the travelling community regarding graves, when he was hearing evidence of mass desecration of other graves during the riot.
Judge Neilon said: "They turned the cemetery into a circus, area and then ask us to see how they look after their dead. This is a reflection on the travelling community. They want to build monuments like the Tower of Babel and then come in here after they have desecrated other graves with savagery and use this excuse. I know how to deal with it."
Mr Gerry Gannon, defending, objected to one of the defendants in custody being brought to court in chains, saying his past record was irrelevant to his guilt or innocence in this case. However, Judge Nielan said it was not his function to interfere with a matter involving security.
Mr Gannon also objected to the presence in court of assorted weapons on display, stating that unless the axes, iron bars, clubs and other implements could be linked in direct evidence to those on trial then they gave an outrageous impression of serious violence and were prejudicial to his clients.
Gardai gave evidence of being called to Tuam cemetery on the afternoon of June 2nd and finding a full-scale melee in progress. Their priority was to separate the two factions. However, the Garda witnesses were unable to say which side had instigated the trouble or caused most of it.
They eventually managed to separate the sides but stone throwing still continued from both sides. Many were bleeding heavily. Eventually, the gardai got the McDonaghs out of the graveyard and the fighting stopped.