Four men, who assaulted a man and forced him into the sea at Castletownbere in County Cork, have been given suspended sentences ranging from 12 months to two years.
Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard that the victim, Thomas O'Halloran, would have drowned if a friend had not rescued him from the water during the 2001 incident.
The court was told how a row broke at a nightclub in the town between the victim and the four defendants: brothers Michael and Mark Harrington, Jamie O'Driscoll and Thomas Hendricks.
It happened on the anniversary of the sinking of the fishing trawler, the St Gervais.
Judge Sean O'Donnabháin said, 'These fellows seem to think that because they were at a memorial for the dead, they had a licence to abuse the living'.
'I am appalled that these men, from a coastal community, would put another man through the indignity of going into the water on a winter's night. Surely they would know the dangers of the sea better than anyone else.'
He sentenced 19-year-old Jaime O'Driscoll and 22-year-old Mark Harrington, both from St Martin's Avenue, Castletownbere, to 12 months in prison, suspending the sentences for 12 months.
He sentenced 24-year-old Thomas Hendricks of Enniscorthy, County Wexford, to 18 months in prison, suspending it for 18 months. Twenty-three-year-old Michael Harrington, of St Martin's Avenue, Castletownbere was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years.
