GRAVE DANGER
Cops fear repeat of cemetery bloodbath as relative of feud figures to be buried
GARDAI are braced for further violence at a graveyard this week amid a bitter 30-year Traveller feud.
Armed gardai and an army helicopter had to be called in to the scene of a mass brawl and stabbings at the funeral of grandmother Teresa Ward in Tuam, Co Galway last month.
Multiple people were injured as tensions in an ongoing family row came to a head on the afternoon of September 22.
Now it is understood gardai are on alert for further potential bloodshed — after an elderly relative of one of the feuding sides has died.
The innocent woman, who is set to be buried in the same graveyard in Tuam this week, is a close relative of individuals involved at the centre of the bitter feud.
And sources say gardai are on standby to police the funeral mass and burial this week.
Fear
“Both sides are still very angry and there’s potential for further bloodshed,” a source said.
“No one wants what happened last month to kick off again, so preparations are being made to try and prevent violence.”
Last month a close relative of the family of the late Teresa
Ward, whose funeral became the scene of the bloody brawl, spoke to The Star and called for the feud to end.
“I do think it’s time that it ends and that no other family has to go through what we went through,” the woman said.
“We didn’t get to say a proper goodbye in the graveyard that day and that wa s heartbreaking.”
The woman also told how she had since been threatened since the violence erupted.
“We can’t go to visit her grave. They’ve told us if we go there now they’re going to cut us up or kill us. I am in fear for my life.
“It’s because we stood up to them. These people bully.”