Navan gardai braced for escalation of feud

The long-standing bad blood between the McDonagh and Nevin families reared its head again this week when, on Wednesday night, a grenade exploded at a house in Reask Green in revenge for an earlier beating of a man who had to be hospitalised. At around 2pm on Wednesday, a member of one family in his 20s was dragged from his van near Commons Road in the town and beaten so badly he had to be hospitalised. He is thought to have a broken leg among other injuries. A group of people congregated and several weapons were produced. Three further men were hospitalised in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, with various injuries and range in age from 17 to early 40s. Two members of each family were hospitalised. Gardai calmed things until 12.05am when a the grenade exploded at the home of a member of one of the families, blowing in the windows and causing minor damage. Gardai say that no-one was at home at the time. The fact that no-one was home means the pipe bomb was most likely intended as a message rather than an attempt on the residents' lives. The following day, Thursday, a petrol bomb exploded at the same address after a similar flare up at Reask Green at around 10pm. The bomb was thrown through the front windows and fire units were called to the scene. Again, no-one was hurt in the attack and gardai on both occasions conducted door-to-door enquiries. Gardai say no official complaint has so far been filed by either side over the week's hostilities. The tense atmosphere on the estate on Friday means that gardai are bracing themselves for more incidents and have increased their numbers around the town and will again for Sunday's blessing of the graves ceremony at St Mary's Cemetery where thousands of locals are expected to attend. Gardai in Navan arrested a 19-year-old from Reask under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and can hold him for 72 hours. Searches of Clogherboy and Reask were carried out by the Navan Gardai, the Regional Support Unit, Trim and Kells Gardai and the Traffic Corps on Friday 1st July.