A JUDGE warned a County Limerick man to consider alternative ways of celebrating his birthday after she heard he was arrested while staggering in the middle of the road in the path of a bus.
John Paul Morrison (50), of Colbert Terrace, Abbeyfeale, admitted before the District Court to being intoxicated in a public place.
Judge Carol Anne Coolican heard that, on July 25 last year, a Garda car was flagged down by a woman who said there was a man in an intoxicated state.
Gardaí found Mr Morrison “in the middle of the road” outside the Longcourt House Hotel in Newcastle West.
“He was unstable, in the middle of the road, and hindering the passage of a bus,” a Garda witness told the court.
The Garda said he arrested Mr Morrison because he was “a danger to himself”.
Mr Morrison was fined for his conduct but the court heard he had “overlooked” paying the fine when it arrived in the post.
His solicitor told Judge Coolican that the night in question was Mr Byrne’s 50th birthday.
The solicitor told the court “that’s no excuse,- he did get the fixed penalty notice and intended to pay it, but he just overlooked it”.
Judge Coolican fined Mr Morrison €200 and advised him that he “should celebrate his birthdays differently in future.”
