EXCLUSIVE: 'I can't forgive Hayes brothers but for a very different reason than you might think'

THE MAN who was viciously beaten by Daragh and Cian Hayes who were armed with a hurley and spider wrench, has spoken for the first time about his shock at the sentence they received and why he can’t forgive them.

Ciaran Ryan told the Limerick Leader / Limerick Live this Friday about doctors telling his mother he only had a 50/50 chance of surviving, and how their brother Kyle Hayes’ success has clouded people’s judgement on the incident.

Daragh Hayes was given a three-year jail sentence with the final six months suspended for assaulting Mr Ryan with a hurley and a wrench. Judge Colin Daly imposed a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence with the final six months suspended on Cian Hayes, Mr Ryan’s then best friend, for assaulting him with a wrench.

It has been well documented that Mr Ryan was invited to Daragh Hayes’ home on the family farm in Ballyashea, Kildimo, on September 29, 2021, ostensibly to discuss Cian Hayes’ upcoming nuptials. Mr Ryan was due to be the best man.

The brothers set upon Mr Ryan with the weapons due to their “erroneous belief” that he was having a “clandestine affair” with the former partner of Daragh Hayes, the mother of two of his children.

Mr Ryan spent eight days in hospital from injuries that included a punctured lung, broken leg, broken arm, broken fingers, shattered ribs, severe bruising all over his body and he underwent emergency surgery. 

“I fought for my life. The doctors told my mother inside in the hospital that the operation to my lung, if the healing doesn't go well, there's a 50/50 chance that your son won't survive,” said Mr Ryan (pictured below when he was in UHL).

Over three years on from the attack, the former Limerick minor footballer says he is still shook, wakes up in the middle of the night in a pool of sweat and wets the bed. Mr Ryan said it was sickening to hear “how well orchestrated it was”.

“It is the viciousness of the assault over a suspicion when they were lies. They were wrong. I still get nightmares, I still pee the bed and wake up in a pool of sweat. The part of the nightmare that I wake up to is always seeing Darragh crying as I was lying in a pool of blood on the ground. 

“He is pacing up and down the room, saying to Cian, ‘Cian man, he's telling the truth, we went too far, we went too far’. That still haunts me, like, how could they beat me to a pulp without talking to me first? They didn't let any room for talking or anything.”

Mr Ryan said the one thing that he really wants to get on the Limerick Leader is that Daragh Hayes ex-partner wrote a letter “how nothing ever sexual happened between me and her”.

“She wrote that. It's not coming from me, you know, because people might say, ‘Oh, Ciaran is lying’. We were good friends and that’s it. Those boys are so vicious. Nothing happened between me and her but yet they attacked me on suspicion.”

Mr Ryan says he was appalled and shocked at the sentences of three-years in prison with the final six months suspended and two-and-a-half-years with the final six months suspended respectively, based on other cases.

“When I was at the court case in December, a woman got two years for shoplifting, and these boys get two years for a horrific crime. I just don't understand the justice system that way," he stated.

“If they attacked me now, a Section 3 assault carries a maximum of 10 years but because they attacked me three years ago the maximum is five years. The judge said it was at the higher end of the scale but it wasn't. The higher end of the scale is closer to five years. They got the lower end of the scale,” said Mr Ryan, who added that he was also in court for an assault case where the accused got three years in jail.

“There was no breakage or bruising and he gets three years in jail. I just don't understand that. It’s easy for me to say they (Hayes brothers) deserve more time in jail but compared to other sentences I’ve seen dished out in other cases, it wasn’t justice.”

READ MORE: 'They both stretched out my leg and Daragh swung at me with the wrench just below the kneecap - Read full victim impact statement in Hayes brothers' case

The question is put to Mr Ryan is he intimidated or worried about when the Hayes brothers are released from prison despite both their defence barristers saying he had nothing to fear from them?

“100% yes," he answers, "because they didn't apologise to me once. They got my own friends, because I was in the same circle of friends with them, to ring me. One of them said that Cian Hayes heard on the grapevine that I'd be willing to let this all go, as in not go ahead with the case, if I got an apology. I was told, ‘If that's what it takes, we will give an apology’. So they weren't willing to give an apology, only if I let the case go away”.

Can he ever forgive the Hayes brothers who were once his very close friends? 

“That's a good question. The answer to that is 100% I can't but for a very different reason than you might think. I can't forgive them ever for blackening my name around the parish - 'choose a side, the Hayes' or the Ryans'.

“They spread rumours and lies about me to try and tarnish my name to make it look like someone else attacked me. They didn't once put their hands up when the guards came to them and say, ‘Yeah, we've done it’.”

For years there was a cloud hanging over the local community over what had happened but did the facts coming out in open court last December change people’s opinions?

“People were appalled at the GAA club writing anything (testimonial). Has the mood changed? I would presume it has but have I seen it? No. A local farmer rang me at one stage and he was basically blaming me that the parish won't be the same again.

“He said 'is there any way we can sit down and sort this out without going through the courts and make it all go away'. He was actually so delusional that he tried to make me feel bad about it, that I’m after dividing it.”

READ MORE: Sentencing hearing for Hayes brothers hears they were under illusion victim was having 'clandestine affair'

Mr Ryan said not one person that was on the Hayes’ side has turned to his side, that he knows about.

“No one has contacted me, no one has sent me any letters. Friends that I used to have, the Hayes have turned them against me.”

Finally, does Mr Ryan think Daragh and Cian’s younger brother Kyle Hayes's hurling success with the Limerick senior hurling team has clouded people's judgement on the vicious attack?

“100%, yeah. He’s on a pedestal. They called it Kyledimo for a reason.”