Tag Archives: cows

A Mountshannon farmer has received a suspended three year jail term and ordered to pay a €3,000 fine after it was uncovered using DNA tracing that he was responsible for three separate thefts of a total of 15 cattle from his neighbour. Ahead of delivering his sentence at Ennis Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Gerald Keys told Padraig O’Brien, (42), of Magherigh “what you have done to your neighbour is unforgivable”. O’Brien had pleaded guilty to 15 counts of theft of the cattle worth €17,000. The offences involved the theft of five in-calf heifers from Bohatch, Mountshannon between January 17 and 18, 2015; the theft of six heifers from Kilrateera, Mountshannon between May 23 and 24, 2013, and the theft of four cows from Bohatch between December 8 and 9, 2013, a total of 15 charges. The court heard that gardaí were led to O’Brien after they found “sporadic hoof marks on the ditches” in frost, leading to his farmyard in …

CLARE gardaí have enlisted the services of an oceanographer as part of a complex investigation into the alleged dumping of 17 carcasses at the base of the Baltard Cliffs near Doonbeg. Chief Superintendent John Kerin confirmed the oceanographer was hired in an effort to establish whether or not the animals, which were discovered in April 2014 were washed in from the Atlantic Ocean. Superintendent Kerin confirmed a substantial two-volume file on one of the most complex cases in West Clare in recent times had been lodged with the DPP since December. It is understood that a decision considering a direction in this case will be made in the near future. An investigation is continuing involving the gardaí, the Department of Agriculture, Clare County Council and the ISPCA. The expertise of the Department of Agriculture, concerning DNA examination of the dead animals, has been called on to establish if they matched any herd number in the department’s official records. Up to …