*The alleged assault took place at The Jamaica Inn in October 2023.
A CLARE teenager told a court today all he could hear was the sound of wood smacking off his then 12 year old friend after he saw former All-Star and Clare All-Ireland winning hurler, Niall Gilligan go to hit him.
At Ennis Circuit Court today (Thursday), the teenager said that a “horrible thing happened to my friend” when recalling the alleged assault of his then 12 year old friend on October 5th 2023 at the Jamaica Inn hostel in Sixmilebridge.
Mr Gilligan (48) of Rossroe, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge denies the assault causing harm with a stick of the boy at the Jamaica Inn hostel, Sixmilebridge on October 5th 2023.
The two 12 year old boys had been exploring the abandoned Jamaica Inn hostel after 5pm on October 5th.
Mr Gilligan owned the Jamaica Inn hostel at the time and the jury has been told that in the days leading up to October 5th, it had been broken into and vandalised.
Under cross examination via video link from a room at Ennis courthouse on Thursday afternoon, the now teenager said that in his interview with Gardaí in November 2023 he said that he saw Niall Gilligan hit his friend.
At the trial on Thursday the teenager said that he didn’t see Mr Gilligan hit his friend. He said, “I saw him go to hit him, I mis-phrased that. All I could hear was the sound of wood smacking off my friend”.
He said, “I said I saw him go to hit him – I didn’t see him hit him”.
The teenager said that his friend was ‘tiny’ at the time when he was attacked.
The teenage witness told counsel for Mr Gilligan, Patrick Whyms BL (instructed by solicitor, Daragh Hassett) that as his friend slipped as they were running away from Mr Gilligan “I saw Niall coming at him with the stick about to swing at him”.
He said, “We were both running away and he attacked my friend when we were both running in the opposite direction to him”.
The teenager disagreed with Mr Gilligan’s version of events that the altercation with his friend took place inside the building.
In his November 2023 video evidence with a Garda specialist interviewer played earlier to the jury on Thursday the now teenager said his father later showed him a photo of Niall Gilligan later that evening on October 5th and the boy confirmed that the man who attacked his friend was the accused.
In the video interview carried out on November 11th 2023, the witness said that as the two boys left the building and came around a corner, they saw “a tall, kind of strong looking” man holding a stick and they both ran.
Asked how he felt by the specialist Garda interviewer, the boy said “terrified” and added “but I just got out of there as fast as I could, all I could think was ‘get out of there’ and I did”.
The boy described the man as “fit looking like, gingerly brown kinda hair”.
He said, “I seen him playing hurling when I was younger and he played for the Bridge and Clare.”
The boy told Gardaí Mr Gilligan is an auctioneer in Sixmilebridge.
Asked about his friend’s screaming, the boy said, “I heard him shouting, like I heard him screaming like telling him to stop. My friend telling him to fuck off and to leave him alone, that was about it”.
The boy hid in a nearby industrial estate and he said that felt relatively safe “but I was still very scared that somehow he could have seen me”.
A short time later, the boy said that he saw his friend come around the corner “and he was limping like he was holding his arm, holding his hand, holding the wrist he broke and it was all swelling up”.
The boy said that his friend was “looking in pain, he had lots of mud all over him”.
The boy told Gardaí that his friend “was very shaky, obviously he felt very, very scared and in a lot of pain”.
He said, “I was just supporting him to walk up, just like holding him up…I put my arm around his back so I could support him so he could have one of his legs off the ground so it would be easier for him to walk”.
The boy said that his friend “said ‘it just hurts everywhere’ is all he said”.
The boy said that his friend told him “go home because if he sees you, he is going to get you as well”.
The jury also heard from witness for the State, Linda Quinn from Sixmilebridge who runs the local GAA club shop.
She said on her way into the club on the evening of October 5th, she noticed a child near the gate and that something did not look right.
“I just said are you okay, he said no”, she told the court.
She went on to say how the boy asked her if she thought his hand was broken. “It was very swollen”.
He then showed her a “big gash” on his leg and asked her opinion.
When Ms Quinn asked him what happened, he told her he had fallen off his bike.
He went on to ask her to look at his arm, where there was another deep gash. Ms Quinn told him he might need to get stitches. At this, the child got upset and Ms Quinn offered to give him a lift home.
Shortly afterwards, they arrived at his house, and after speaking to the boy’s aunt, Ms. Quinn returned to work.
The trial continues on Friday before a jury of seven men and five women.
