Brother of Laois student killed by dangerous driver welcomes DPP decision

A brother of the late Joe Drennan welcomed the DPP’s decision to appeal the sentence handed down to the man who caused his death. 

Welcoming the appeal, Richard Drennan said his family would continue to campaign for a change in sentencing and for justice for Joe. 

“We have to wait and go through the motions again and see what result we get the next time.  Hopefully the result we get will do Joe justice,” he said. 

Joe Drennan was a talented 21-year-old University of Limerick journalism student. He was killed when he was struck by a speeding car driven by Kieran Fogarty(21) on October 13, 2023.

Judge Colin Daly imposed a six-and-a-half-year jail sentence on Fogarty, of Hyde Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, for dangerous driving causing death. However, he said this would be concurrent to an eight-year term for shooting up a house as part of gangland feud.

The Drennan family believe concurrent sentences which run at the same time as other sentences should not be imposed in cases where lives are lost. They say the concurrent nature of the sentence means Fogarty won’t serve any time for killing Joe. 

Richard said he would like to meet Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, and he confirmed the Justice for Joe event was going ahead in Camross this Sunday at noon. 

“We are going to go ahead with Camross this Sunday. We were in the Dáil yesterday and we are still going to be pushing for the change in the legislation between concurrent and consecutive,” he explained. 

He said the changes are needed to prevent other families from experiencing the same ordeal. The campaign has been tough on the family who have been busy getting their message out. 

“Sarah has been very busy. It is taking its toll on everyone,” he said. 

Richared said an online petition calling for changes which was launched by the family in recent days has secured almost 12,000 signatures. “We have support throughout the country,” he said. 

The family visited the Dáil on Tuesday where they met Sinn Fein leader  Mary Lou McDonald and Matt Carthy TD. 

“We went up there yesterday. Everyone was really supportive across the board. Any TDs we were talking to, they were totally and completely supportive,” said Richard. 

Richard said he wanted to “thank everyone again for their continuous support. We are going to keep going,” he said.