THE mother of innocent student journalist Joe Drennan, who was killed in a hit and run two years ago, said her family were informed this Wednesday morning (February 12) that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had lodged an appeal against a six-and-half-year concurrent sentence imposed on her son’s killer on the grounds it was too lenient.
At his sentencing hearing on January 30, 21-year-old Kieran Fogarty, of Hyde Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, was jailed for eight years for shooting at a house in April 2023.
The sentencing judge, Colin Daly, initially told the hearing that he was sentencing Fogarty to an additional six and a half years for the fatal hit and run. However, Judge Daly corrected himself during the hearing and said the hit and run sentence would run concurrently (at the same time as) to the eight year sentence, meaning Fogarty would not serve any additional jail time for killing Joe Drennan.
Mr Drennan’s family said they were disgusted by the sentence, calling on the DPP to lodge an appeal against it, and argued that the sentence should run consecutively to the other sentence.
Confirming this Wednesday that the DPP had lodged the appeal, Joe Drennan’s mother, Marguerite Drennan, said “it’s great news, thank God, thank God, thank God”.
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“My son, Richard, contacted us, so it is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. It’s absolutely unreal, thank God for it,” Ms Drennan said.
Ms Drennan said that regardless of the outcome of the DPP’s appeal, her family would press ahead with an online petition calling on the government and Minister for Justice “to amend the current sentencing laws to ensure that multiple sentences for serious crimes, particularly those involving loss of life, are served consecutively rather than concurrently”.
The petition had at time of going to print on Wednesday, garnered more than 11,500 signatures since it began on February 6. Its numbers were greatly boosted by a public outcry following the sentencing, which led to two public marches and demonstrations being held against the sentencing held in Limerick City and on the University of Limerick campus (where Joe Drennan had been an award-winning journalism student) last week.
The Drennan family also held a protest outside the Dáil on Tuesday, continuing their camping #JusticeForJoe.
“I hope the appeal will give us more of a sense of closure, please God. We just need justice for Joe, and then we have to go ahead with the petition to change the concurrent sentencing laws, so that has to go ahead as well,” Ms Drennan told the Limerick Post.
Becoming emotional, Marguerite Drennan said that “it won’t bring Joe back, but it will help other families”.
The DPP has been contacted for comment on the appeal.
Kieran Fogarty, who was not known to Joe Drennan, was speeding and filming himself on a mobile phone while he drove a BMW 5 Series in the moments leading up to the fatal hit and run.
At the time, Fogarty was on bail, subject to several arrest warrants, and banned from driving by the courts.
Fogarty broke a red light and collided with another car, injuring the driver, before ploughing into a bus stop where Joe Drennan was innocently waiting for a bus on October 13, 2023.
21-year-old Joe Drennan, from Mountrath, Co Laois, was a fourth-year journalism student at the University of Limerick, where he was editor in chief of the university’s news platform Limerick Voice. He had finished a work shift at a nearby restaurant and was waiting for his bus home when he was struck and killed by Fogarty.
At the sentencing hearing, Fogarty received further concurrent sentences for engaging in violent disorder and possessing drugs for sale or supply. Fogarty also pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a man in April 2023 – an offence which was taken into consideration by Judge Daly.
Meanwhile, a Garda investigation is continuing into the circumstances behind a threatening letter sent to Judge Daly following Kieran Fogarty’s sentencing hearing.
The handwritten correspondence was intercepted by courts services staff at the Limerick Circuit Criminal Court complex in Mulgrave Street in Limerick City last Friday.
Sources said that while it is “not uncommon” for members of the judiciary to receive letters in respect of court cases, the nature of the letter in question raised enough alarm for Gardaí to be contacted.
A Garda Press Office spokeswoman said that “An Garda Síochána is aware of correspondence received at a premises in Limerick City in February 2025. Enquiries are ongoing.”
Speaking on Tuesday, Marguerite Drennan said she and her family did not condone such behaviour.
