A man has been a jailed for nine months for his part in an attack in which a youth was beaten with an iron bar, a stick and a steering-wheel lock.
Barry Horan (20), of Monalea Wood, Firhouse, pleaded guilty to assault, causing serious harm to the youth at Knocklyon, Co Dublin, on August 3rd, 1998.
Three of his accomplices were given six-month suspended sentences after pleading guilty to lesser offences arising out of the same incident.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard that the victim, Brian O'Reilly, had to have brain surgery after he was beaten in what Judge Elizabeth Dunne described as "a shameful and cowardly attack".
Det Garda Enda Mulryan told Mr Gerry O'Brien, prosecuting, that six young men drove up in a car and attacked teenagers sitting together at Delaford Estate in Knocklyon.
Barry Plunkett (22) and Sean Corcoran (20), Woodlawn Park Avenue, and Derek Bartley (21) Carriglea Walk, all Firhouse addresses, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm on the same date.
Another man was jailed last March for assaulting Mr O'Reilly.