WATCH Hundreds march through Limerick City calling for ‘Justice for Joe Drennan’

A protest calling for justice for a journalism student Joe Drennan killed in a hit-and-run incident in 2023 took place in Limerick city centre on Saturday. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

A protest held in Limerick on Saturday, February 8, has called for Justice for Joe Drennan, a journalism students killed in a hit-and-run incident in 2023

The protest in Limerick City calling for Justice for Joe Drennan aims to put pressure on the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to appeal the sentence given to the man responsible for the journalism student’s death in a hit-and-run incident in 2023.

Joe Drennan, a 21-year-old student from Mountrath, Co. Laois, was struck and killed by a car driven by Kieran Fogarty (21), of Hyde Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick, who was aged 19 at the time and filmed himself moments before the incident driving at 122 km/h in a 50 km/h zone while outpacing Gardaí.

At the time, Fogarty was already on bail and banned from driving. After the collision, Fogarty attempted to clear his DNA presence from the vehicle before fleeing the scene without offering assistance to Joe Drenna or alert Emergency Services, but Gardaí were able to match the convicted DNA with that on an airbag deployed on the scene.

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Fogarty was sentenced to eight years in prison by Judge Colin Daly at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court last week for a drive-by shooting committed six months before Joe Drennan’s death. The court was initially told Fogarty would serve an additional six-and-a-half years for the hit-and-run, but Judge Colin Daly later ruled both sentences would run concurrently, meaning Fogarty would serve eight years in total.

Speaking at the protest held on Saturday, February 8, the Drennan family said they are seeking an appeal of the sentence, calling for the prison terms to run consecutively, which would result in a total of 14-and-a-half years in prison.

Joe Drennan’s parents, Tim and Marguerite, called for changes to Ireland’s sentencing laws at the Bedford Row protest, Marguerite told I Love Limerick, “We need to change the law. The law needs to be changed and that’s just final.”

Joe’s father, Tim, emphasised the case highlights a need for the law to change and the wider issue with concurrent sentencing, saying, “Joe’s sentence wasn’t justice for him. His killer basically got away free like, it’s basically to change the law in regards to concurrent sentencing and it just helps somebody else as well besides Joe, it could happen to anybody in the country.”

Tim noted that he believes his son’s death should not have been treated alongside an unrelated crime, saying, “Joe is bundled in with a crime that was committed six months before that, of gangland nature, and he was never involved in anything like so it should never have happened in the first place.”

In a bid to make the change, the Drennan family has launched a petition online using Change.org calling for a review of Ireland’s sentencing laws to ensure sentences for multiple serious crimes, particularly those involving loss of life, are served consecutively rather than concurrently.

Making a plea to politicians and people in power to make a change, Time said, “Just to do something so that this doesn’t happen again. This doesn’t have to be done. We shouldn’t be here doing this.

“I was never in front of a camera in my life. I don’t like even taking photographs. But I’m in everything now. I will do it as much as possible, just to get this message across, it can’t happen again, you can’t give anybody a free right.”

Pictures: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick