Man to face gun charge after horse fair chaos
A 41-year-old man will stand before a judge for allegedly hiding a pistol used in the Smithfield horse fair shooting.
Detectives believe that the man arrested following the violence was paid money by the shooters to dump the .22 calibre pistol used in the shooting.
The suspect, from the south inner city, has been grilled by detectives at the Bridewell Garda Station over his part in the disturbances and will face charges in court over his involvement.
Surgery
The Herald has learned that three bullets were fired from the weapon during the skirmishes on Sunday morning but miraculously they failed to hit anyone in the area.
Two men from Offaly are recovering in hospital after both were shot in the leg in the violent disturbances, while a third received emergency surgery after his arm was nearly sliced off by a machete.
They were hit by pellets fired from a home-made shotgun which was made safe by an army bomb disposal team, who initially believed it to be a pipebomb.
The second man has been transferred to a hospital in the midlands from the Mater.
The feud which sparked Sunday's violent attacks and stampede began with a bloody bare-knuckle boxing fight in Waterford four years ago.
The row, which centres on two Traveller factions, has led to violence right around the country as members of each group got involved.
There have been hundreds of tit-for-tat attacks over the past two years, resulting in arson and gun attacks, slash hook violence, stabbings and horse mutilation.
Teenager and promising boxer Wesley McDonagh (17) has been identified as the man who almost had his arm sliced off with a machete in the incident.
Wesley was forced to tie a black bin-liner around his wrist to stem the blood flowing from a gaping wound just above his left elbow.
Dreams
He lost eight pints of blood and had three metal plates inserted in his left arm during a 10-hour operation which has ended his boxing career and Olympic dreams.
Speaking from his hospital bed, where he is under constant garda protection, Wesley said: "I suddenly heard gunshots.
"I didn't know what was going on.
"I just turned around and saw this fella coming down on my head with a machete.
"Straight away I put my arm up to shield myself and the blade just cut into my arm at the elbow. Otherwise it would have came right down on my head."
Detectives believe they have identified the two gunmen from Sunday morning from photos and video footage of the disturbances and a garda manhunt is under way to track them down.
Dublin sisters lead city fightback from ruins
TWO Dublin sisters whose homes were wrecked in the New Zealand earthquake have been selflessly helping the people of Christchurch to cope in the aftermath.
Emily and Leah Heron, originally from Swords, told the Herald their lives have been "surreal" since the earthquake hit the city last month.
"My house is a building site," said Leah Heron (24), who has been staying with friends all over the city.
"I am living out of a backpack. I have no clothes, all my stuff that was in the house is ruined."
Leah has been working on the frontline with the Civil Defence in Christchurch for the past fortnight.
"I'm in charge of organising teams of people to take business owners to their properties in the city," she said.
"It's quite sad to see people going back to their places of work, loading up wheelbarrows and trolleys with their belongings, knowing they can't go back again."
She described the atmosphere in the city as "very low".
She recalls the day last week when the rescue mission was called off because it was believed no one could still be alive in collapsed buildings.
"That was an absolutely horrible day. All hope was lost, they brought sniffer dogs through the city twice and could find no sign of life," she said.
Leah's sister, Emily Heron (27), lost her house in the quake.
Collapsed
"My boyfriend and I had only moved in a few weeks ago, and now it's destroyed," she said.
"Part of the roof and the wall at the gable end of the house is collapsed, the place is a mess.
"We have been living in our friends' back garden in a tent. There was no power or running water at the start so it was pretty gross."
Emily is a teacher in a community school and will be back to work on Monday.
"The last two weeks have made me and my sister question our future here in Christchurch. But I am happy to stay put for now, it has become my home."
Gardai left baffled after severed arm found on the beach
A GRISLY find on a Dublin beach is proving more baffling than the infamous "body in the suitcase" probe ten years ago.
This time there is no body -- only a severed right arm that washed ashore at Dollymount Beach on February 8 last.
The Herald understands that the right hand had been expertly cut from the limb -- and there are no fingerprints.
The expert severing has raised concerns that body may not be that of a suicide, but instead a murder victim.
However following examination by the State pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy identification remains a mystery.
And gardai are comparing the case to the notorious "body in the suitcase" crime ten years ago. In that instance the body of a murdered Romanian man was dumped in a suitcase in the Royal Canal. It was eventually identified after a public appeal.
But five weeks on there has been no breakthrough in the most recent case. It appears that every effort had been made to thwart identification.
A tattoo, which could have helped the investigation, has been expertly removed.
Ship
The location of the find -- washed up on the Northside beach -- poses more questions that it answers. It was found by a man out walking his dog.
But no one knows if it had its origins in Wales, the Isle of Man, or even Ringsend.
"It could have been washed up from anywhere or thrown overboard from a ship," a source said. Prof Cassidy's examination has established that the limb may have been in the water for about three weeks before it was discovered on February 8.
Police forces in the North, and several other jurisdiction have been alerted but the investigation is at a standstill.
No other body parts have been washed up on Irish or British shorelines.
The case was revisited by gardai this week but no new developments were reported. "It is not even clear if there has been a murder. But people have been thinking back to the body in the suitcase," the source added.
Hospitals and mortuaries have been checked and officers have trawled through missing persons files.
Beating
The "body in the suitcase" story horrified Dublin in 2001.
In July 2001 a Romanian man was murdered and his body was found dumped in a suitcase in Dublin's Royal Canal.
Adrian Bestead (21) was killed on or about July 8, 2001. It emerged that his girlfriend claimed he had been violent to her and she wanted others to give him a beating. But they went too far. A number of successful prosecutions followed.