Gardaí are investigating after a man with a chainsaw posted a video online threatening to cut “limbs” off members of a rival faction in an escalating dispute between two families in Cork city.
The video was posted on a social media platform on Monday night after an earlier incident when three men armed with baseball bats attacked another member of the rival family as he ran for protection behind a sweet counter in a Supervalu store in Hollyhill in Cork.
The victim of the assault, a man in his 20s, later went online and issued a challenge to his attackers.
Gardaí say the feud between the two families has been going on for years. A source said it flares up for a time and then a peace deal is agreed only for some incident to spark it off again. Last Friday, members of one faction smashed windows at a house belonging to a member of the other group.
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“That incident was in Knocknaheeny but we suddenly had videos of fellows jumping in cars and speeding off and we had incidents of windows being put out in houses in Fair Hill and Ballincollig and Curraheen within hours, so it’s having repercussions in all of the city,” said the source.
Other garda sources suggest the latest outbreak stems from an incident in a Cork city centre department store just before Christmas where a woman was attacked. The assault was filmed and posted online, resulting in an escalation in tensions.
Gardaí said a hand grenade was thrown at a family home in Ballyvolane in September while houses have also been petrol bombed as part of the feud.
“We haven’t received any complaint from anyone on either side so far, but it’s just been good fortune that no one has been seriously injured because somebody could get badly hurt here or even killed and if that happens, we’re into a right tit-for-tat,” said a source.
“Of course, the other big fear is that somebody with no involvement in the feud, some innocent bystander, could get injured – somebody in the supermarket yesterday getting hit with a bat or somebody could be knocked down by one crowd speeding off from one of these attacks.”
Officers from the Garda Armed Support Unit (ASU) have carried out a number of raids and searches for guns, including one on a house in Knocknaheeny on Sunday night, but did not find any weapons or make arrests.
Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould, who grew up in Knocknaheeny and lives in nearby Gurranebraher, said that gardaí were doing their best to try to bring those involved to justice but a lack of garda resources was hindering their work.
“There has been an ongoing issue with a number of families and gangs fighting each other over the last two years at different times – what happened yesterday in Supervalu in Hollyhill was shocking, seeing customers and staff absolutely terrified – it was absolutely horrendous.
“As someone born and reared in the area, I’ve never seen anything like this, but this situation has been ongoing, and I don’t feel the gardaí have the resources and the manpower to tackle this. Imagine if this happened in affluent areas of Cork or Dublin? It just wouldn’t be accepted.
“I’ve spoken to gardaí on the ground here in Cork and they just don’t feel they are getting the support from Drew Harris that they need in terms of the numbers coming out of Templemore – we need more gardaí in Cork to nip this in the bud before somebody is seriously hurt or killed.”
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