Prison sentences were imposed on three Travellers yesterday after disturbances in Co Wexford over the June Bank Holiday weekend
Those charged were aged between 17 and 24 with addresses in Kildare, Limerick, Northern Ireland and Britain. They were part of a contingent of 400 Travellers who had been encamped on a site adjoining the Riverbank House Hotel in Ferrybank, outside Wexford town for almost a week.
John Flynn (24), Roches Road, Rathkeale, Co Limerick, received a two month sentence. He was charged with being drunk and a danger to himself and others and failing to comply with the direction of a garda outside Wexford General Hospital on June 7th. He was further fined €400 for failing to appear at New Ross District Court.
Patrick Kealy (23), Pastlands, Monasterevin, Co Kildare, received a three month sentence.
He was before the court on charges of being drunk and a danger to himself and others, engaging in threatening or abusive behaviour and failing to comply with the direction of a garda on the same date.
Jeremiah Quilligan (20), Farmhill, Rathkeale, Co Limerick, received a two month sentence. He was charged with being drunk, a danger to himself and others and engaging in threatening or abusive behaviour.
Sentencing of rapist adjourned
The sentencing of a Cork barber who raped an Australian tourist two years ago has been adjourned for a week after the Central Criminal Court learned he had locked another two women in public toilets and assaulted them just 11 days later.
"I will need time to reflect on this," Mr Justice Barry White said after hearing from Det Garda Denis Lynch that Johnny English, Streamhill, Cork, had tampered with locks in toilet cubicles of a Cork pub and a takeaway and assaulted two women there on December 6th, 2002.
English pleaded guilty during his trial in March 2004 to raping the now 26-year-old Australian on November 26th, 2002 at the geography department of University College Cork.
Det Garda Lynch said English had 27 previous convictions, four of which involved attacks on women.
Conference for Eamon Leahy
Mr Eamon Leahy SC, whose sudden death last year shocked the legal and political worlds, will be commemorated at a memorial conference this Friday, writes Carol Coulter.
The first Eamon Leahy Memorial Conference, organised jointly by the Free Legal Advice Centres and South Inner City Community Development Association, will be opened by Mr Leahy's widow, the Fianna Fáil chief whip, Ms Mary Hanafin.