The family of Joe Drennan, a student killed in a hit-and-run, said they were “disgusted” by his killer’s sentence of 6½ years, after a judge said it would run concurrent to another sentence imposed on the driver for firing an automatic weapon in a separate incident.
Limerick gangland criminal Kieran Fogarty was jailed for eight years for firing the weapon at the front of a house where children played in Limerick city in April 2023.
Six months afterwards, while he was on bail and disqualified from driving for road-traffic offences, Fogarty crashed into and killed 21-year-old Drennan, a University of Limerick journalism student who was standing waiting at a bus stop, on October 13th, 2023.
Before fleeing the crash scene and failing to offer assistance to Drennan or alert the emergency services, Fogarty attempted to wipe his forensic presence from the car, but gardaí using forensic techniques matched his DNA to some found on an airbag that had deployed.
Fogarty received further concurrent sentences for engaging in violent disorder, possessing cocaine, MDMA [ecstasy] and alprazolam drugs for sale or supply. His guilty plea to threatening to kill Raymond Collins jnr in April 2023 was taken into consideration by the judge.
In court, after the sentences were imposed, Tim Drennan, father of the deceased, asked Judge Colin Daly: “Sorry, your honour, does that mean that this fella [Fogarty] will not serve a day [in jail] for killing my son?” Earlier the judge had said the hit-and-run sentence would run in addition to the shooting sentence, but later the judge corrected this.
[ ‘Hugely talented’ student journalist killed in Limerick hit-and-runOpens in new window ]
The judge, rising from his bench, did not respond to Mr Drennan’s query and retired to his chambers.
Afterwards, speaking outside the court Joe Drennan’s parents, Tim and Marguerite Drennan, said they were “disgusted” by the outcome. They said Fogarty “would not serve anything” for their son’s death.
Holding a picture of their son in a keyring, Tim Drennan said Fogarty had left his son to “die like a dog on the street”. He said he felt like Fogarty had got away without punishment for “killing my son”.
Marguerite Drennan said Fogarty’s sentence for her son’s death was “absolutely unbelievable” and “really hard to take”.
Paying tribute to her son, Marguerite Drennan said: “Joe was amazing, the bubble of our lives, he was just everything to us, he was the chief editor of the Limerick Voice [University of Limerick student newspaper], he worked for Gay Community News, he was the voice for the voiceless.”
Tim and Marguerite Drennan said they hoped that the Director of Public Prosecutions would appeal Fogarty’s sentence in respect of their son’s death and that it would be served consecutively to Fogarty’s sentence for the shooting.
The Drennans said they were also disappointed for the gardaí “who put in an awful lot of work” into the prosecution against Fogarty for their son’s death; “it’s a kick in the teeth for that”.
Fogarty, who had 46 previous convictions including 41 for road traffic offences including dangerous driving, pleaded guilty to all of the offences against him.
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