Fears have been expressed that a traveller feud involving warring families in Galway City and Tuam is escalating after a series of petrol bomb attacks on homes at both locations over the past week.

Gardaí have told the Galway City Tribune that they fear someone will be seriously injured or worse as the feud between the Ward and McDonagh families ramps up again.

Back in 2021, there was a notorious ‘graveyard incident’ in Tuam when warring factions engaged in a brawl that left seven people in hospital.

But the roots of the bitter feud go further back, to 1996, when another huge melee broke out in the same graveyard and the bitterness between the two families has not abated in the meantime.

“It is getting worse. And it has now spread to Mayo where an individual living in England arrived home and ignited a row which is connected with the incidents in Tuam and Galway city,” said a Garda source.

The tension between the two families in both Tuam and Galway city ‘has escalated’, they said, with petrol bombs being thrown at houses on the Headford Road and at Castlepark in Galway city, as well as in Gilmartin Road in Tuam.

Gardaí have appealed for information over the attacks. It is understood that another family involved in the ongoing feud live in Ballinrobe.

In one incident, at around 10pm on Tuesday of last week, a petrol bomb was thrown at a house at Bothar An Choiste, Headford Road, causing extensive damage to a front room.

The following day, Wednesday, a petrol bomb was thrown at a house at Gilmartin Road in Tuam. On this occasion a black Audi A6 was seen pulling up at the residence and two males got out of the car. Then, last Sunday at around 11.30pm, a device was thrown at a property at Gort Cam, Ballybane.

But the device failed to ignite, and a black car was seen leaving the area at speed with a distinctive black sticker on the back window.

Anyone with information on any of these incidents, including dash cam footage, is asked to contact Galway Garda Station at 091 538000 or the Garda Confidential Line at 1800 666 111. Gardai in Tuam also say that a car was rammed in Gilmartin Road around the time of the petrol bombing.