Alan McNamara pleads not guilty to murder charge

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Alan McNamara pleaded not guilty to the murder of Andrew O’Donoghue at the Central Criminal Court. Robert Cusack pleaded not guilty to impeding the apprehension or prosecution of McNamara. The proceedings were reported on 14 July 2017.

O’Donoghue, a member of the Road Tramps motorbike club, was shot dead on 21 June 2015. The court heard that he was killed in a territorial dispute between rival clubs.

The jury heard that weapons, including shotguns, batons, iron bars and pepper spray, were found at and near the Road Tramps clubhouse in Murroe. Club member Seamus Duggan said the weapons were for protection in case someone tried to break in.

McNamara’s defence counsel, Hugh Hartnett, told the court that three Road Tramps members had called to McNamara’s home the night before the shooting, waved a gun and threatened to burn down his house in front of his wife and children. Duggan said he did not know whether that incident occurred.

At a pub on 19 June 2015, Duggan said he held McNamara’s wife back while two other men assaulted McNamara and took his jacket, which bore the colours of a rival club. Duggan said he felt entitled to hold her back. James McCormack, one of the men at the pub, accepted that he had punched McNamara in the face but denied there had been an organised plan to assault him and take the jacket.