A “pioneer of the tarmacadam industry” who claimed he “owned the town of Rathkeale” avoided a prison sentence when he agreed to stay out of the county Limerick town for the next 12 months.
Fred O’Donoghue, a married father and member of the “nomadic community”, was said to have been extremely drunk at Fiddlers Green Bar in Rathkeale on February 14, 2011 when gardaí were clearing the local pubs after closing time.
Mr O’Donoghue initially refused to move and when he was eventually persuaded to leave, Garda Sergeant Flood said he threatened to “kick my stones up and down the town of Rathekeale”.
Members of Mr O’Donoghue’s family came and tried take him from the area but he again offered some resistance before finally being removed.
Gardai subsequently encountered Mr O’Donoghue at a local Chinese restaurant with a number of other men fighting and shouting. They asked Mr O’Donoghue to leave but he shouted at Sgt Flood that he and his family “owned the town of Rathkeale” and no garda would get him out.
Outside the restaurant, he headbutted a large pane glass window and was arrested after Sgt Flood used pepper spray to subdue him. He was subsequently charged with public order offences.
At Newcastle West District Court on February 14 last year, Judge Mary O’Halloran fined him €1500 for a breach of section 4 of the Public Order Act andsentenced him to two terms of three months in prison to run consecutively.
He subsequent;y appealed the sentence to the circuit court and last week, Judge Carroll Moran heard that Mr O’Donoghue had been ordered to stay outside a 5km radius of the town of Rathkeale.
Defending counsel Brian McInerney said that his client was a man of “nomadic traditions” and was “something of a pioneer in the tarmacadam industry of the continent”.
Accepting that he had a “bad attitude”, Mr McInerney told the court that this year his client had a “quiet and sober Christmas – apart from the reminders from his wife of the trouble he caused the family in having to stay away from their loved ones and extended family during the festive season.”
He said that Mr O’Donoghue only returns to Ireland once or twice a year as his work is largely based in Germany, Spain and France.
Judge Moran said he would adjourn the matter for 12 months and ordered that Mr O’Donoghue stay out of the town of Rathkeale. He added that he would “revisit the matter next year”.
