AN 83-year-old man brandished a knife at another man during a dispute over a boat.

John Orsi of Ballymagowan, Kerrykeel, was before Letterkenny District Court on Monday charged with a Section 11 Firearms offence.

Sergeant Jim Collins told the court that on January 31, 2025, at Massmount, Kerrykeel, gardaí took a statement of complaint from a man, who had been working at a machine at his sister’s house when, during a verbal exchange, Orsi
produced a knife and waved it at him.

The court was told that the incident was recorded on a mobile phone.

Orsi left the scene, and when gardaí spoke to him he was fully cooperative, the court was told.

Solicitor Frank Dorrian said the incident related to a row over the ownership of a boat.

“It reads worse than it is. My client has no previous convictions. He told me that he should not have had the knife in his hand in the first place.”

Mr Dorrian pointed out that the person whom his client brandished the knife at was in a JCB at all times during the incident, meaning that there was distance between the two men.

Judge Brendan O’Reilly asked gardaí to canvas the victim to see if he wished to make a Victim Impact Statement.

A short time later, Sergeant Collins told the court that the views of the injured party were sought in relation to making a Victim Impact Statement, but that he did not wish to do so.

Judge O’Reilly applied the Probation Act.