A TEENAGE groom and two wedding guests have been jailed after becoming involved in a drunken brawl involving a samurai sword and a hatchet with relatives on the wedding night.

There were tearful scenes outside a court yesterday as three Travellers were jailed for between three and five years for their part in a violent brawl.

The then 16-year-old groom, Jimmy Conroy, who is now 18, from Glenbricken, Clifden, Co Galway, and his older brother Michael Conroy (30), Ballybane, Galway, along with their brother-in-law, Thomas 'Buttons' Sweeney (30), from Cleggan, Connemara, were all found guilty by a jury at Galway Circuit Criminal Court last month of assaulting two wedding guests with a sword, a saw and a hatchet, during a fracas at the home of the groom on his wedding night.

"There is only one law in this country and it applies to everybody," Judge Raymond Groarke warned the extended Conroy and Sweeney families, who were present in large numbers at the back of the court yesterday.

"Nobody, but nobody is exempt from the law."

The men's wives, children and sisters screamed and sobbed as the sentences were handed down and they continued to scream and cry outside the courtroom as the men were led away by prison officers.

All of the parties were related to each other through various marriages.

Last month the jury found the men guilty on 10 charges involving violent disorder and assaults.

All three were found guilty by the jury of committing violent disorder in the vicinity of Conroy's home on September 19, 2009.

Judge Groarke told the women before passing sentence that along with the innocent Sweeney brothers, they and their children were victims too of their husbands' violence in this cowardly attack.

"They (the Sweeneys) were retreating and unarmed when they were attacked," he said.

Jimmy Conroy was found guilty of assaulting brothers, John Paul Sweeney from Knock, and Eddie Sweeney from Milltown, Tuam, causing them harm at Glenbricken, on the same night.

He was also found guilty of producing a carpenter's saw during the same incident.

Michael Conroy was found guilty of assaulting John Paul Sweeney, causing him harm and with producing a samurai sword in the course of the fight.

Thomas 'Buttons' Sweeney was found guilty of assaulting the two and of producing a hatchet during the dispute.

All three were sentenced to seven years for being involved in the violent disorder incident and he imposed concurrent five-year sentences on them for the assaults and for producing the weapons.

He suspended the final four years of Jimmy Conroy's sentence and suspended the final two years of the older men's sentences, on condition all three keep the peace and be of good behaviour for five years following their release.

In a victim-impact statement handed into court yesterday, the Sweeney brothers said they just wanted to get on with their lives and bore no animosity towards the three accused.

Irish Independent