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A priest has been hailed a hero after he intervened in a brawl between feuding members of the Travelling community outside a church yesterday.

Fr Declan Hurley persuaded the warring factions to get off the grounds of St Mary’s Church in Navan, Co Meath.

He told the Irish Mirror: “You cannot be a shrinking violet in my job.

“You can have people turn up at ceremonies drunk or on drugs, you’d have people occasionally raising their voices to each other and the odd row would break out.”

Local Sinn Fein TD Peadar Tobin told how he had to usher his young children to safety as the punch-up, believed to involve rival clans, went on for more than 10 minutes.

He said: “As Fr Declan concluded Mass I could hear raised voices at the back of the chapel. When I turned to look there were about 15 people roaring and pointing at each other. There was a little bit of jostling inside the church but when Massgoers were leaving by the Fair Green entrance they walked into a battleground.

“When I came out there was a serious row going on, this wasn’t handbags.

“Boxes were being thrown and people were taking full-on punches to the head.

“I grabbed my kids and moved them away from the scene, other parents were comforting their children who were clearly shaken up by what was going on. Fr Declan arrived out and fair play to him he went into the middle of it and basically told them to get off the church grounds.

“Thankfully they listened to him and started to move away while still roaring at each other. At that point the gardai arrived on the scene, but once Fr Declan intervened it sort of petered out.”

It is believed the Mass was a month’s anniversary for a lady called Bridget O’Donnell who died in Manchester and members of both clans turned up to it.