Brothers' street fight ended in fatal stabbing
The sister of two brothers, whose street fight ended with one fatally stabbing the other, has told a jury at the Central Criminal Court that "one was as bad as the other".
Ms Ann Marie O'Loughlin told prosecuting counsel Ms Caroline Biggs BL (with Mr Tom McConnell SC) that both Patrick and Charlie McDonagh were extremely upset after a fight earlier that evening.
Patrick McDonagh (aged 27), of Bridge Court, Roslevan, Ennis, denies murdering his brother Charlie (aged 30), at Bridge Court, on January 28 after a drinking session. He also denies the alternative charge of manslaughter and a further charge of producing a knife in the course of a fight.
Ms O'Loughlin said she had been in bed when she received a call from Patrick's wife Donna. Donna asked her if she and the children could stay the night and whether she would collect Patrick from the hospital where he had gone after the earlier fight.
Ms O'Loughlin said Patrick was "crying like a baby" when she and her husband arrived at the hospital. Patrick had been treated for injuries including a split lip, broken nose and slashed ear received during the earlier fight with Charlie.
Ms O'Loughlin said Patrick cheered up when he got outside the hospital and started talking about getting compensation from Charlie for his injuries. "He was all upset and then he was like laughing. It was like an act, to be honest."
Despite his sister and a brother, who had also arrived at the hospital, trying to persuade him to stay elsewhere over night, Patrick insisted on going home to his wife and three children.
Mr Ned McDonagh, a brother of both the accused and the deceased, told Mr McConnell that Charlie arrived at the house he shared with his sister's family and their father at about 11.30 pm that night.
He seemed drunk and was very upset about the fact that Patrick had broken the window of his van during the argument. Ned tried to calm him down, telling him they could sort everything out in the morning.
When Charlie tried to drive off Ned reached into his van for the keys. In the struggle that followed the key was broken. Ned told Mr McConnell, Charlie got out of the car and started advancing towards him telling him he now owed him a set of keys.
Ned agreed with Mr Brendan Nix, defending, that Charlie had been known to bite people when he was drinking and was in a temper. He agreed that when Charlie got out of the van he was banging the side of it with his fists and followed Ned into the house "roaring".
He said Charlie then ran off down the street and hailed a taxi. Ned followed in a van with his brother in law.
The taxi driver, Mr Paul Kelleher, agreed with Mr Nix that Charlie told him he was being chased by his brothers who intended to hurt him but also agreed that he had told gardaí "they're my brothers. They're after trashing my van. I'm going to kill them."
When they arrived back at Bridge Court, Charlie saw that Patrick had smashed the front windows of his house. Gardaí were at the scene. Charlie told Mr Kelleher he would wait until they had gone and would get a slash hook.
Ned McDonagh told Mr McConnell that he asked gardaí to arrest Charlie so that no one got hurt but they refused.
Ms O'Loughlin said she and her husband brought Patrick back to his house and they went inside. A short time later Patrick received a phone call from Charlie. "Charlie was offering Patrick outside."
Despite attempts to stop him, Patrick picked up a hatchet and went out to his brother. Charlie was standing bare chested in the middle of the road, holding a knife he had taken from a neighbour's house.
Ms O'Loughlin said that the two men started to fight. She and her husband eventually managed to disarm them and separate them but Patrick picked up the knife from where it had been thrown and ran towards his brother.
"He grabbed the knife, his eyes were wide open and that's when I went into shock."
Charlie McDonagh received twelve stab wounds but Ms O'Loughlin said Patrick's house was also "soaked" in blood. She said she could see "bits of flesh" in the hall.
She agreed with Mr Nix that Charlie had severed a tendon in Patrick's arm during the fight but said she did not know if he could have held the knife.
She said her brother Charlie was a "gentleman, 100%" and would not comment on Mr Nix's suggestion that if Patrick hadn't fought back, Charlie would have been the accused in the case.
The trial will continue tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul Carney and the jury of seven women and five men.
