HAVING SUFFERED A fatal knife wound to his neck, a Dublin father called the man who had inflicted the injury a “dirtbird” and told him: “You stabbed me in the artery, you f**king eejit,” a murder trial has heard.

The jury in the trial of 39-year-old Joseph Lawlor today viewed CCTV footage of the moment when the accused stabbed his friend Michael ‘Chino’ Ryan during a physical altercation following a day of drinking.

The jury has seen CCTV footage of two prior altercations between the men on the same day.

Joseph Lawlor, of Hampton Wood Road in Finglas, Dublin 11 has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 51-year-old Michael Ryan in a carpark to the back of the accused man’s home on 20 June 2024.

The jury has previously heard that Lawlor and the deceased were drinking together in Lawlor’s home throughout the day, and had their first physical altercation at 8.30pm.

Following a second altercation just after 9.30pm, Michael Ryan left in his car, but was arrested almost immediately for drink driving.

Having been processed and released from custody, he returned to Lawlor’s home shortly after midnight.

Detective Garda Ronan Kelly today told Kevin White SC, prosecuting, that he viewed CCTV footage of the altercation that followed, and listened to an audio recording from a neighbour’s Ring doorbell more than 50 times.

In the audio footage, he said that Michael Ryan can be heard speaking through Lawlor’s front door, asking for the return of a watch which he said was worth €4,000 and was “personal to me”.

Lawlor told him: “F**k off Chino, I’m not giving it to you.”

When Ryan continued to demand his watch, Lawlor said: “I’ll fight you down the back”, before Ryan said he would “send someone over” to “flick two or three pineapples in your window.”

Det Gda Kelly said pineapple is slang for a grenade.

About seven minutes later, Kelly said that Ryan had retrieved a bag from Lawlor’s home and could be seen walking back towards the car park, followed by Lawlor carrying a knife in his left hand.

Kelly said an audio recording captured Ryan moments after being stabbed saying: “You fucking c**t you, you dirtbird, Joey. You stabbed me in the artery, you f**king eejit.”

In his opening speech to the jury earlier this week, White said the deceased’s words were “prescient”, given that he had suffered a fatal injury to his artery.

Gda Kelly said Lawlor walked back towards his house, saying: “There’ll be no pineapples going through my door.”

Moments later, Lawlor returned to the scene and called emergency services looking for an ambulance.

The jury heard a recording of the 999 call in which Lawlor could be heard asking for help.

The trial continues before Justice Patrick McGrath and a jury.