Sentences handed down over fatal shooting at traveller wedding

A father and son have been jailed for a total of seven-and-a-half years between them over a shooting at a traveller wedding which led to a relative being killed.
Bernard Patrick McGinley, aged 18, (left) and Patrick McGinley, aged 24, (right), leaving court yesterdayBernard Patrick McGinley, aged 18, (left) and Patrick McGinley, aged 24, (right), leaving court yesterday
Bernard Patrick McGinley, aged 18, (left) and Patrick McGinley, aged 24, (right), leaving court yesterday

Scrap dealer and father-of-five Patrick McGinley Senior, 49 and from Ardlougher Road, Irvinestown, was jailed for four years after pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his uncle Barney McGinley, 63, outside a Catholic church in Co Fermanagh over three years ago.

Mr Justice Colton told him he will also serve four years on supervised licence.

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As the sentence was passed, relatives of the dead man left the public gallery, shouting: “You have to come out, you know.” As McGinley was led from the dock, the deceased’s widow Brigid repeatedly banged on the door of the public gallery.

Patrick McGinley Senior’s son William McGinley, 29 and of Sallyswood, Irvinestown, was jailed for three-and-a-half years after he admitted wounding Barney McGinley’s son, Bernard Oliver McGinley, with intent to cause GBH.

The judge told him he would also serve three years and nine months on supervised licence on his release.

Two other sons of Patrick McGinley Senior, Patrick McGinley Junior (aged 24, of Lisfarrell, Edgesworthtown, Co Longford) and Bernard Patrick McGinley (18, of Ardlougher Road, Irvinestown) pleaded guilty to a charge of affray over the same incident.

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Patrick McGinley Junior was ordered to carry out 150 hours community service and Bernard Patrick McGinley was given 12 months of probation.

It was the Crown case that the shooting happened outside St Mary’s Catholic Church in Newtownbutler on February 11, 2015, where the wedding of the niece of Patrick McGinley Senior was due to take place.

Senior prosecutor Neil Connor QC said that “there appeared to a considerable amount of bad blood” between families.

The court heard 63-year-old Barney McGinley turned up at the church with his wife of 41 years in a van. It was his presence at the wedding that sparked the incident, the court heard.

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Mr Connor said there appeared to have been “some sort of altercation and they had a heated exchange” before the deceased drove out of the carpark and headed up the main road where he met up with other family members.

Following a discussion, Barney McGinley then returned and parked up outside the church where there was a further altercation and a home made ‘pipe gun’ or ‘stick gun’ was produced.

The court heard a claim the weapon was brought to the scene by a “person in the company of the deceased”.

The court heard Patrick McGinley Senior claimed he “forcibly removed the pipe gun from the deceased” and he claimed that during a struggle it was discharged.

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William McGinley picked up the “crude” weapon, reloaded it with a further shotgun cartridge and fired it into the back of the deceased’s son Bernard Oliver McGinley from a range of six to 10 feet.

During what was described as a “melee”, Patrick McGinley Junior and his teenage brother Bernard Patrick McGinley became involved in the incident by rushing foward from the church to assist their father.

Barney McGinley was put in a vehicle, said Mr Connor, and taken to Lisnaskea police station from where he was airlifted to the Erne hospital by helicopter. He died soon after.

The prosecutor said the pathologist gave the cause of death was as a result of a “shotgun wound to the abdomen”.

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At the sentecing hearing today, Mr Justice Colton said the gun had been brought by an associate of the deceased.

He told the court that there was “no question of pre-planning or premeditation”.

Although his three sons had no previous convictions, Mr Justice Colton said scrap dealer Patrick McGinley Senior did have previous convictions – he had received a suspended sentence at a court in Dublin in 1999 for violent disorder and also had two convictions in Belgium in 2010 and 2011 for fraud offences.

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