THE New Year got off to a bloody and violent start in Rush at a New Year's Eve party that ended in a brutal stabbing attack that left one man unconscious and bleeding from the head.

Gardaí were called to the disturbance in the Woodland Park area of Rush in the very early where they found a man in his 30s lying on a pavement 'unconscious and bleeding heavily from the head'. The man was close to death, according to garda sources and when the emergency services arrived on the scene, the victim of the horror stabbing was removed to Beaumont Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery to save his life.

A week later, residents on a quiet Swords estate were shocked to the core by a brutal gun attack on a 29-year-old neighbour that left him with serious injuries. The attack happened around 10.10pm in Drynam Drive on Wednesday, January 7th and the following morning, the only clue of the night's shocking events was an open window at the property where the callous gun attack was carried out. This month also saw two elderly brothers in Garristown subjected to a terrifying ordeal as they were dragged from their beds and beaten for the sake of their pension money.

81-year-old Cyril Barkley from Corntown, Garristown, told the Fingal Independent that he was 'shook' up by the attack which saw four masked men burst through the front door of his cottage. He was at home with his brother Petey Barkley when the raiders forced their way in with an iron bar. The brothers were subjected to a terrifying ordeal that began when the four raiders dragged Petey from his bed and beat him about the head and chest. The raiders then demanded cash from both men. One of the brothers handed over € 300 from his pension money but the cowardly gang were not satisfied with the haul and began to ransack the small cottage.

The four attackers eventually left the scene in a large, dark coloured, saloon car and the alarm was raised.

Later in January, a murder hunt was launched after the body of a father of two was found stabbed to death and dumped in a ditch in Dunsoghly Lane in The Ward.

Peter Gunn's remains were found in a drain on this rural road in west Fingal, 13 days after he vanished. Gardaí believe Mr Gunn was knifed to death elsewhere and his body dumped where it was found at Dunsoghly Lane. Before January was out, a popular pub in Malahide was hit by armed raiders as its staff made a routine deposit at the night bank. A lone gunman held up two male members of the bar staff from Gibney's Pub in the small hours of Sunday morning, January 25th, in St Margaret's Avenue in Malahide. The pub's employees were pulling away from the kerbside, when the raider's hand appeared through the open driver's window and opened the driver's door.

The armed thief, put a gun to the driver's head and demanded that both men get out of the car and leave a plastic bag with the night's takings behind them. He made off with the car and the plastic bag full of cash - understood to be several thousand euro. In March, a young Portmarnock man who found himself at the centre of a 'tiger kidnapping' and a € 7 million bank raid was recovering from the trauma with his family at their Ardilaun home. The bank employee, Shane Travers, who was targeted by criminals in the one of the biggest bank raids in the state's history hails from Portmarnock and went home in an effort to come to terms with what had happened.

Shane's father, Jesse, spoke briefly to the Fingal Independent and said that his son had been 'very traumatised' by the raid.

Also in March, the family of Rachel O'Reilly finally saw some closure in the case against her murdered, Joe O'Reilly when O'Reilly's appeal against his conviction was thrown out. Outside the court, Rachel O'Reilly's parents said they were relieved at the outcome of the appeal. Her mother, Rose Callaly, said Joe O'Reilly was not the only person who had been given a life sentence. She said he had given the entire family a life sentence when he murdered her daughter. Meanwhile, two men, including a scout leader from Rush were jailed for having sex with a 14-yearold boy. Thomas Rogers from St Catherine's Avenue in Rush and former Fair City actor, Patrick Dunleavy from Sherrard St Lr met the teenager through a gay website and admitted to engaging in sexual acts with the boy in early 2007. Both men were jailed for two years.