Specsavers

They're trying to kill me but they should've gone to Specsavers By Claire Connolly Doyle

Anthony Kelly shot for the third time this year.ANTHONY Kelly estimates that 66 shots have been fired at him in the last 12 months. The latest attack was last Friday night when a lone gunman fired a semi-automatic handgun at him. Five bullets from the rapid burst hit him, four in the abdomen and side and once through the knee. This is the third time this year that he has been injured in a shooting attack.Supt Frank O’Brien declined to comment on the issue of protection for the 46-year-old father of six.But speaking to the Limerick Post from his bed in the public trauma ward of the Mid Western Regional Hospital on Monday, Anthony’s attitude was surprisingly jocular."They should’ve gone to Specsavers!” he quipped making fun of the fact that despite in excess of so many bullets, he has ever been only slightly injured.He was due to be released this week and planned to return to his mother’s house in Southill where he has been living recently. His partner lives in another part of Southill with their six children who are aged between eight and 23 years.Enjoying his tea and buttered bread in the open ward at the Dooradoyle hospital this week, he recounted the different attacks down through the last 12 months."They’re trying to kill me, but so far no real damage has been done. I’d say I’ve had 66 bullets fired at me so far,” he remarked matter-of-factly."On the 29th of September they riddled my van with bullets but didn’t hit me and a few months before that a bullet skimmed my forehead.” The brother of deceased controversial politician and self-confessed criminal Michael Kelly, Anthony believes that the continued attempts on his life are over his and his late brother’s claims that women and families living in Southill were being terrorised by a particular gang living locally."We know that 15 rapes have been perpetrated in the area but people are too afraid to come forward. We wanted people to come out and tell the guards what was happening and that’s why I’ve been targeted.”However, despite the repeated claims, detectives and senior gardai at Roxboro Road garda station insist that there is no basis to the Kellys’ assertions. Michael Kelly died of a single gun shot wound to his head in June 2004. No charges have ever been brought against anyone but Anthony doggedly denies that the wound was self-inflicted and insists that Michael was murdered. He ordered the exhumation of Michael’s body some time later to dispel rumours that the weapon that fired the fatal shot had been buried with him.Speaking about the latest attack on him at around 9pm on Friday night, Anthony said that he believes he was deliberately lured out of his Southill home by the gunman."The windows of my mother’s and my brother’s house were put in earlier that night. I was on my way home again when I was shot at.”Anthony added that he believes he knows the identity of the man who shot him but is happy to leave the matter to the gardai. Gardai say that a semi-automatic handgun was used in the latest attack and believe that it was motivated by "an ongoing local feud”. They are appealing for anyone with information to come forward. The gunman’s identity was masked by a hat. He ran off on foot after firing at his target.Two trials will take plcae next month in connection with a previous assault on Anthony in the Jail Boreen and a threat to kill him.

From the Limerick Post...