{"id":440634,"date":"2026-05-09T17:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/440634\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T17:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:23:10","slug":"drunken-night-ends-in-alleged-assault-as-two-limerick-childhood-friends-find-themselves-before-limerick-circuit-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/440634\/","title":{"rendered":"Drunken night ends in alleged assault as two Limerick childhood friends find themselves before Limerick Circuit Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

A NIGHT of drinking and chatting late into the night, which resulted in an alleged assault<\/a> saw two childhood friends – now in their 50s – facing each other across the courtroom at Limerick Circuit Court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

John Quinlan was on trial before a jury of six women and six men, charged with assault causing harm to Mike McCormack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both men grew up in Vale Avenue, Carew Park, where the defendant still lives and have been friends for more than 40 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following a complicated trial, which lasted less than a week, the jury found Mr Quinlan not guilty of assault and he was acquitted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Taking to the stand himself, Mr Quinlan, the defendant, said: \u201cI\u2019ve known him all my life (the complainant, Mr McCormack), since we were kids, we were very close friends when we were younger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old told the court: \u201cHis life took a different path to mine, he moved to Cork later in life and I didn’t see him so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The court heard that they reconnected and Mr McCormack\u00a0 called to Mr Quinlan\u2019s house on April 20, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They were chatting, went to Tesco for alcohol and mixers and then drank and chatted into the night, before events took a turn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Quinlan said that Mr McCormack was going through a difficult time personally regarding his former wife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They had arranged to meet on April 17, but Mr McCormack never turned up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the day in question, April 20, 2025, Mr Quinlan recalled: \u201cI saw his camper van pulling up outside my house.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pair started drinking at around 7.30pm and he said they were chatting about \u201cgeneral life and his situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Quinlan said\u00a0 a third man, also a childhood friend, arrived later that evening and chatted and drank tea with them and left before the alleged assault.<\/p>\n

However, this was contested by barrister John O’Sullivan for the prosecution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He argued\u00a0 there was no mention of this man in earlier garda statements and he was\u00a0 first brought into the scenario as a witness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was Mr Quinlan\u2019s evidence that Mr McCormack was \u201ctrying to force\u201d him to read documents and that the other friend was helping to \u201ccalm the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He said the documents included personal emails, financial records and footage from a Ring doorbell – all relating to Mr McCormack\u2019s former wife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He described the atmosphere as being \u201cvery tense\u201d. However, this was also contested by the prosecution, who argued that Mr Quinlan was not in fear, as he had willingly gone to get alcohol with the complainant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the night went on, Mr Quinlan said\u00a0 tensions rose and that he \u201cwas expecting him (Mr McCormack)\u00a0 at any minute to hit me from behind\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Quinlan said\u00a0 he asked the complainant to leave his home and that he was going in and out of the back of the house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He told the court that he put Mr McCormack\u2019s shoes and jumper outside and told him he was going to call the garda\u00ed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked up and he was charging at me. His head and arm were in the back door and I slammed the door, as I pushed, he was slipping and I know I connected hard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe door opened and he was still coming at me, he fell out the door on top of me and he hit the ground. I was on top of him and his eyes were wide and he was foaming at the mouth. He made a noise, said my name and I closed the door and phoned the garda\u00ed and an ambulance.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cAt the time, I thought if he gets in, he\u2019s going to kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said\u00a0 he felt \u201cvery uncomfortable from the moment\u201d that Mr McCormack walked into his house. Again, this was disputed by the prosecuting barrister John O\u2019Sullivan BL.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Representing Mr Quinlan, barrister Donal Cronin BL, said: \u201cYou found yourself in a position where you had to use force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Quinlan replied: \u201cI was in fear of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O’Sullivan challenged this saying: \u201cThis is rubbish and a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the defendant told the jury he was in fear, but yet he got into the complainant\u2019s van, went to Tesco and allowed him into his home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Sullivan put it to the defendant: \u201cYou sir were very annoyed with Mr McCormack as the night went on,\u201d which Mr Quinlan disagreed with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Referencing photographs that were handed into the court, Mr O\u2019Sullivan added: \u201cThe nature of injuries were such that you were not acting in self defence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third man, who emerged as being in the house after the fact, gave evidence that Mr McCormack was \u201cvery agitated and was going in and out to smoke and was getting angry.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described Mr Quinlan as being \u201cvery calm and kind of the voice of reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to questions from the prosecution about the history of friendship between the trio, he said: \u201cI found myself between my two friends, which is a horrible situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Sullivan said: \u201cI would suggest that you were not there on the night\u201d, to which the witness replied: \u201cI was 100% there and I swore on the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court heard that Mr Quinlan was arrested six months after the alleged assault.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In closing statements, Mr O\u2019Sullivan BL for the prosecution described the trial as \u201can unfortunate case\u201d.<\/p>\n

He spoke about conflicting evidence and suggested that Mr Quinlan\u2019s evidence about being in fear of his life was \u201ca nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrister for the defendant, Donal Cronin BL, told the jury that he is not disputing that his client used force against the complainant and that Mr McCormack was injured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, he argued that Mr McCormack misled the jury in his evidence and pointed out that they were being urged by the prosecution to disregard the evidence of the third man, on the basis that he wasn\u2019t included in the garda investigation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Cronin said that the third friend was in \u201can unenviable position giving evidence in a matter concerning two lifelong friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

After one hour of deliberation, the jury of six men and six women found Mr Quinlan not guilty of assault causing harm and returned a unanimous verdict.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was a large crowd of friends, family and neighbours supporting Mr Quinlan in the courtroom and they clapped when the verdict was given, and were told by Judge Colin Daly that the courtroom was \u201cnot a concert hall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Daly thanked the jury for their time, dedication and service.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A NIGHT of drinking and chatting late into the night, which resulted in an alleged assault saw two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13553,61,60,1396,67397,43],"class_list":["post-440634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-circuit-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-limerick","tag-limerick-circuit-court","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}