*Ballaghboy.
A 23-year old Dublin man charged in connection with a shooting incident at an Ennis halting site last month has secured High Court bail, a court has heard.
Johnny Donovan of Bay 3, Rathmichael, Shankill, Co Dublin first appeared at Ennis District Court on June 6th in connection with four charges arising from the shooting incident at Ballaghboy halting site, Quin Rd, Ennis on Thursday, May 29th last.
Judge Alec Gabbett refused bail on that date after Garda objections and Sgt John Burke has now told Judge Gabbett that Mr Donovan has since secured High Court bail.
Sgt Burke told Ennis District Court that in the last week “there have been very significant developments” in the investigation.
Sgt Burke said that he can’t go into the significant developments at the moment.
Judge Gabbett noted that Mr Donovan now has High Court bail and said to his solicitor, John Casey that he is aware of the High Court bail conditions, particularly the call outs.
Mr Casey said that his client was aware of the conditions.
Mr Donovan is facing three charges of criminal damage of property at Ballaghboy and a fourth under the Firearms and Weapons act concerning use of a Hurley or a stick at Ballaghboy halting site, Quin Rd, Ennis on Thursday, May 29th last.
At the contested bail hearing on June 6th, Det Garda Aoife O’Malley told the court that there had been unrest all week due to tensions between certain families at Ballaghboy halting site with Gardaí responding to multiple incidents.
Det Garda O’Malley said that additional Gardaí were deployed to police the situation and she said that the shooting incident took place only ten minutes after the Garda Armed Support Unit (ASU) had left the scene.
Det Garda O’Malley said that the alleged shooting showed blatant disregard for An Garda Síochána.
She said that the fire-arm has not yet been recovered.
Det Garda O’Malley said that it will be alleged that on May 29th last, “Johnny Donovan while travelling in a grey BMW jeep entered Ballaghboy halting site, Quin Rd, Ennis and accompanied by a second male produced a hand-gun and fired three indiscriminate shots at a caravan in the first bay”.
No person was shot but Det Garda O’Malley said that two people were present in the bay at the time of the shooting.
She said that one of the two took a video which captures her running to a vehicle to take cover and captures three gunshots.
Det Garda O’Malley said that no persons are identified in the video.
She said that a Garda Scenes of Crime unit examined the scene and found one caravan had three bullet holes while one spent bullet was found inside the caravan.
Det Garda O’Malley said that Mr Donovan who, she said, has family links to Co Clare is first cousins of the partners of the injured parties in this case.
She said, “They are all very well known to each other and until recently would have been very friendly with each other”.
Judge Gabbett has now remanded Mr Donovan on continuing High Court bail to re-appear at Ennis District Court on October 1th for DPP directions in the case.
