Seven "properly brought up" young men from south Dublin were yesterday given suspended prison sentences for their various roles in serious assaults and violent disorder.
They are also to pay a total of €18,600 in compensation to their victims.
The seven were sentenced by Judge Desmond Hogan, who heard the case arose because a girl had kissed a man some months previously leading to a drink-fuelled fight in which a bottle and a knife were used.
They pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to violent disorder and assault causing harm to Rory Browne, Paul Plunkett and Keith Butler in October 2005 in Stillorgan.
Chris Higgins (19), Castlebrook, Dundrum, produced €5,000 in compensation and Shane O'Connor (21), Kilmacud Road Upper, Stillorgan paid €3,500.
Compensation of €2,500 each was paid by Eoghan Devins (20), Hazel Avenue, Kilmacud; Stephen Monaghan (19) Kilmacud Road Lower, Dundrum; and Stephen Bradshaw (20) Wedgewood, Sandyford; while Andrew Sharpe (20), originally, from the same south Dublin area and now with an address at Ballinaclash, Blackwater, Co Wexford, paid €1,600. Andrew Greene (19), also of Wedgewood, paid €1,000.
Judge Hogan said previously that it was an "aggravating factor" in the case that people who had been "given a chance in life and brought up properly still commit this kind of assault".
He imposed two-year suspended sentences on Higgins, O'Connor, Devins, Monaghan, Bradshaw and Sharpe and directed that they each carry out 240 hours community service, and a one-year suspended term on Greene, who has to do 200 hours community service.
The judge noted that probation reports on the men were good.
Garda Ivan Howlin told Mary Rose Gearty BL, prosecuting, that Higgins had sworn to get revenge on Mr Browne for kissing his girlfriend in a disco some months previously and this set off a chain of events.
Higgins saw Mr Browne coming out of an off-licence in Stillorgan with a female friend on October 12th, 2005, and when Mr Browne crossed the road to avoid him, Higgins and his friends followed.
Garda Howlin said Mr Browne threw a drinks can at them and ran away but they caught up with him at Beaufield Park, Stillorgan, and forced him to the ground before kicking and punching him.
Mr Browne subsequently received three stitches for a cut lip and had numerous cuts and bruises. At the end of the assault, Higgins grabbed Mr Browne by the scruff of the neck and asked: "Was it worth it?"
Garda Howlin said that after this assault, Mr Browne realised his mobile phone and other personal items were missing. Two of his friends, Keith Butler and Paul Plunkett, rang Higgins's mobile phone on October 14th to try to get the items back.
Higgins was at a 21st birthday party in Kiely's pub in Dundrum with a group of friends, including Devins, Bradshaw and Sharpe. It was decided the two groups would meet at Marshall Court, Stillorgan to get Mr Browne's mobile phone back.
When the groups met a fight broke out. Garda Howlin said Mr Butler and Mr Plunkett were outnumbered. Mr Butler was hit over the head with a glass bottle while Mr Plunkett was stabbed in the left leg by Sharpe, with a steak knife he had taken from the pub to cut some cannabis resin.