A 24-year-old man has been jailed for nine years for stabbing another young man to death in a Co Clare nightclub just over five years ago.
Nathan O'Neill, from Dooradoyle in Limerick, was 19 when he stabbed 23-year-old Jamie Higgins five times in the Shannon Knights nightclub in the early hours of 18 March 2018.
The court heard O'Neill had gone to the nightclub with his girlfriend. Jamie Higgins was also there with some friends.
There was some history between the two men. O'Neill told gardaí he had been bullied and intimidated by Mr Higgins.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Earlier in the night, O'Neill was punched by Mr Higgins at the nightclub and was upset by this. O'Neill left the club and returned around an hour later with a knife.
There was a further altercation in the club. O'Neill pulled out the knife and stabbed Mr Higgins five times. He stabbed Jamie Higgins' friend, Michael Shannon, three times.
He was arrested in undergrowth in a nearby field after fleeing the club.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and the jury convicted him of that offence after a trial for murder.
The court heard Jamie Higgins was the father of a young son.
Mr Justice Paul Burns said it was clear from victim impact statements given to the court that he was much loved and that his death had a profound impact on those close to him.
The judge said O'Neill had committed a number of offences before the killing, which indicated a prior history of possessing weapons.
He said O'Neill left the club and returned armed with a knife which he produced and used repeatedly in a situation where the two other men were not armed.
In mitigation, he said O'Neill had fully cooperated with gardaí, had pleaded guilty early and had shown genuine remorse.
Both the accused and deceased were very young men, the judge said.
He sentenced O'Neill to ten years but suspended the final year and extended his sympathy to the family and friends of Jamie Higgins.
Mr Higgins' mother, Sharon, told the court last month she did not know how to live without her son and she struggled every day without him.
