Kieran Fogarty from Limerick was originally sentenced to six and a half years in prison for dangerous driving, causing the death of 21-year-old journalism student Joe Drennan in October 2023. He was also serving an eight-year sentence for a separate drive-by shooting earlier that year, with both sentences ordered to run concurrently.

However, the Court of Appeal ruled that the original sentence for the fatal crash was too lenient and not proportionate to the seriousness of the offence. The court increased the sentence for dangerous driving causing death by two years, with the final year suspended, and ordered it to run consecutively to a reduced seven-year term for the firearms offence. Fogarty will now serve a total of 13 years in prison and will be disqualified from driving for 20 years following his release.

Joe Drennan, from Mountrath, County Laois, was a fourth-year journalism student at the University of Limerick and had recently been appointed Editor of the student newspaper Limerick Voice. He was waiting at a bus stop on the Dublin Road after finishing work when Fogarty’s BMW, travelling at 122 km/h, spun out of control and struck him. CCTV footage showed Fogarty fleeing the scene just seconds after the crash.

Fogarty, who had 46 previous convictions, including 41 for road traffic offences, was on bail at the time and prohibited from driving. He remained on the run for a month, during which he sent messages acknowledging he had killed someone.

At the appeal hearing, the court viewed text and voice messages in which Fogarty admitted hitting a “21-year-old and a woman”. His barrister described his actions as “appalling, reckless, and inexcusable”.

Joe Drennan’s family expressed deep disappointment with the original outcome of the sentence. His father, Tim Drennan, questioned whether Fogarty would “serve a day” for killing his son, while his sister, Sarah, called the decision “disgusting”. His mother, Marguerite, described Joe as “the bubble of our lives” and “the voice for the voiceless.”