A WEDDING party was thrown into disarray early yesterday when two gunmen opened fire on the groom’s brother.
Robert Sheehan (21) was smoking a cigarette in the car park of the luxurious Bunratty Castle Hotel and Spa, Co Clare, when a car pulled up in front of him and two occupants blasted him in the head and body.
Shocked guests screamed as several shots were fired at Mr Sheehan before the gunmen fled in a black saloon car driven by a third man.
The Garda said Mr Sheehan – who was jailed in 2007 after two children were burned in a petrol car-bombing – was fighting for his life last night at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.
The attack happened at about 3.40am as guests at the wedding of his older brother, Anthony, partied on inside oblivious.
Investigating gardaí were anxious to stress that the wedding couple have no involvement in criminality whatsoever.
Detectives – who were quick to rule out a link with the 2006 petrol-bombing incident – are following several lines of inquiry, including a possible link to a dispute between a number of parties that occurred in Moyross, Limerick, last July.
Two men received stab wounds during the row.
Mr Sheehan’s family kept a vigil at his hospital bed in Limerick yesterday.
“He’s in a critical condition. It’s touch and go,” said Garda Supt Derek Smart of Ennistymon Garda station.
Gardaí are examining a handgun found near the hotel yesterday.
Meanwhile, two men were arrested at a Garda checkpoint in Cork city yesterday.
The pair, aged in their 20s, were being questioned at Mayfield and Gurranabraher Garda stations under section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act.
The Garda can hold them for up to seven days without charge.
Bunratty Castle Hotel car park was full yesterday, as guests from all over the world shared puzzled looks at the Garda tape that surrounded part of the hotel as they ate breakfast.
Tourists flock to the area year round to see the historic Bunratty Castle and visit the world-famous Durty Nelly’s pub, located across the road from the scene of yesterday’s shooting.
Local business owners said they were “shocked”.
“I can’t believe it, I’ve never seen anything like it out here before,” one local man said. “It’s very sad that this would happen at all, anywhere.
“You’d only see this type of thing on the CSI programme on the television.”
A spokesman for management at Bunratty Castle Hotel said they would not be making any comment.
Mr Sheehan made national headlines in 2007 when he was convicted of recklessly endangering the lives of two children who sustained horrific burns when their mother’s car was petrol-bombed in an unprovoked attack in Limerick in 2006.
He was only 16 when he acted as a look-out for two other men who firebombed the car with the children inside.
When he saw Milly (6) and her brother Gavin (4) burning in the car, he helped neighbours save the children from certain death.
He was sentenced to two years in detention for his part in the shocking crime.
Both children are continuing to receive medical and psychological treatment.
After serving that sentence, Mr Sheehan was jailed in February 2009 for 14 months and banned from driving for 10 years.
This was after he pleaded guilty to more than 20 charges arising out of nine incidents, all of which occurred near his home in Moyross.
He pleaded guilty to a litany of charges including dangerous driving, during which he drove across a green area at speed where children were playing in order to evade gardaí.
He also pleaded guilty to possession of a knife.
Anyone with information about yesterday’s gun attack is asked to contact gardaí at Shannon at 061-365 900 or the Garda confidential line at 1800-666 111.
They are anxious to speak to people who were in the vicinity of the Bunratty Castle Hotel between 3am and 4am on Sunday.