THE boy standing in the way of the gate was only 12 or 13, but what he said, and the way he smiled when he said it, was enough to put the fear into John Dempsey.

"How'ya John? Who gave you permission to be in there?"

It was a reasonable inquiry for young Conor Byrne to make given the fact that Mr Dempsey was on his father, DJ's, land.

Standing 6ft 3in in height and many years the boy's senior, John Dempsey really shouldn't have been afraid, but the fear was in him, he said, as he thought of who might be waiting for him beyond the high wall out in Hammer Lane.

He had gone on to Daniel Joseph and Jason Byrne's land to retrieve his heifer after it strayed from his herd. But the heifer wasn't of a mind to follow him despite his best efforts.

The events of December 18 2006, were still being replayed in the Central Criminal Court last week in the trial of DJ and Jason Byrne for the murder of John Dempsey's brother, Eddie.

Both men deny the charge against them.

Eddie Dempsey had gone down to the Byrne brothers' farm in Mountmellick, Co Laois that day with his brother and their 19-year-old farmhand, Tom Gorman, to get the heifer back.

Arriving at the yard on Hammer Lane, they were met by the brothers, who in the meantime had managed to get the animal into their cattle crush.

The Byrnes -- both of them smiling -- invited Eddie Dempsey in, John Dempsey said, and then they closed the gate.

"They bet him down within a minute with the handle of a shovel and the handle of a brush," he told the court in evidence.

Recalling Jason Byrne's actions, he said: "He hit him as hard as he could, with the most powerful draw, with the greatest power that he had in the legs, all along the legs as hard as he could for about a minute."

DJ Byrne hit Eddie Dempsey across the head with a shovel handle, he said.

"Eddie, when he got hit in the head, he fell to the ground. He was saying: 'Where am I? Who hit me?' There was nothing but blood all over the place. It come out of his mouth, it come out of his nose and out of his ear. It was all over his coat."

When it was over, John Dempsey says he dragged his badly beaten brother back out on to the lane by his legs. As he did this, he says he heard DJ Byrne call after him, saying: "Come on in, you're next."

At this point, Detective Garda Patrick Lynn and Garda Irene Grehan were on the scene.

Garda Lynn said he was filled with disgust by what he saw and heard on Hammer Lane. DJ Byrne had held the shovel handle he had beaten Eddie Dempsey with, declaring: "Guard, I hit him. You can arrest and charge me," Detective Lynn's notes recorded. He recalled too how Mr Byrne had called after him as he went to drive Eddie Dempsey to hospital: "Guard, what about the animal in the yard? I'm not going to be at the loss of feed."

Eddie Dempsey died in hospital 10 months after the alleged assault.

While the Byrne brothers have yet to take the stand to defend themselves, their version of the events of December 18, 2006, is different.

Far from being afraid of them, the John Dempsey their Defence Counsel described for the court has always been ready to stand his ground in any dispute with them.

Indeed, lawyers for the Byrne brothers reminded the court of quarrels Mr Dempsey had had with other neighbours going back over 20 years. In one case, Mr Dempsey had even been bound to the peace in the courts, before the order against him was lifted in 1989.

"You were towering over Conor Byrne, and wagging your finger at him, and Jason Byrne saw you," Senior Counsel, John Shortt, for the defence, put it to Mr Dempsey last Thursday.

"You told him you were going to sort them [the Byrnes] out once and for all, and that you can f**k off and tell the guards. They'll do nothing to me," he charged to Mr Demspey's objections.

Mr Shortt told the court how Jason Byrne had been on his way, with his girlfriend, Michelle, to Portarlington, to buy Christmas cards when he first saw John Dempsey on their property.

The next thing Jason Byrne knew, John Dempsey was there in front of him in his jeep with the window rolled down, goading him.

"What's your problem Doyle? Or is it Byrne? I'm going to get help to sort this out once and for all," John Dempsey is alleged to have snarled before heading off to enlist the assistance of his brother Eddie, and Tom Gorman.

By the time the three of them had returned, Jason and DJ Byrne had, the court was told, managed to get the Dempseys' heifer in to their cattle crush in preparation for its removal from their property.

And it was here that the court heard a very different account of the late Eddie Dempsey's behaviour according to the Byrne brothers' senior counsel.

"He said the Byrnes had been stealing cattle from you all their lives and had retagged four black heifers. He said you were scum and the guards wouldn't even keep Jason Byrne," Mr Shortt said.

Shaking his head at the suggestion, John Dempsey visibly recoiled at what was levelled at his late brother next, that he had said that DJ Byrne had "bad, dirty breeding in him", a reference which DJ Byrne himself believed to be related to the fact that he had a daughter with Down's Syndrome.

"Eddie always said 'no one ever knows who's going to have one of them in them,'" John Dempsey responded.

It was further alleged that Eddie Dempsey pushed his way into the Byrnes' yard, with John Dempsey and Tom Gorman following closely behind him.

This was denied by John Dempsey, and later by Tom Gorman when he took to the stand.

"Jason beat him on the legs and when he put his hands down to protect his legs, DJ came with his two hands and hit him with the shovel handle across the right side of his head" said Mr Gorman.

"I was terrified. Eddie fell to the ground. It was all over in a very short time. In the space of six minutes, it was all over," he said.

The trial continues.

Sunday Independent