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Father fined over assault as daughter’s big day descends into chaos
An estranged father of seven who caused a scene at his daughter’s confirmation has been ordered to pay over €2,000 in fines and expenses after he was convicted at Tuam District Court of assault, breach of the peace and a number of road traffic offences.
Fifty two year old Martin O’Toole of Stripe, Irishtown, who had pleaded not guilty to all charges and summonses, represented himself during the one and a half day hearing.
In the course of the hearing he quoted from the Treaty of Rome and referenced other District Court cases and the Irish Constitution to show his rights had been infringed.
He claimed he had been ‘robbed’ of his children, some of whom he hadn’t seen in six years, and that Gardaí had no right to confiscate his Jeep when stopped at a checkpoint.
He also questioned the jurisdiction of the District Court and under what powers he was being prosecuted.
In summing up, Judge Conal Gibbons told O’Toole he was deluded about his rights and had misinterpreted the law.
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. . . and unfortunately you are operating in a complete misunderstanding and miscomprehension of law. You have a warped view of the law,” he told O’Toole.
Arising out of an incident at the back of St Colman’s Church in Corofin on March 24, 2014 during a confirmation ceremony, O’Toole was charged with assaulting his ex-wife, Mary Teresa O’Toole and her partner, Thomas Fahy of Pollinore, Corofin, and they in turn were charged with assaulting O’Toole.
O’Toole was further charged with being in breach of the peace.
O’Toole told the Court he had not been invited to attend but decided he wanted to share his daughter’s day and give her a card. He admitted he hadn’t seen her in six years and didn’t recognise her until her name was called by the Archbishop.
During the ceremony he left the church to rewrite a card his friend had bought in the shop across the road and on his return his former wife, who he stressed he doesn’t talk to anymore since she left him and took their children in 2009, accosted him.
She told him he wasn’t welcome there and she grabbed him by the neck but he pushed her aside and continued into the church.
At this stage Thomas Fahy grabbed him by the throat and with the help of another man and O’Toole’s son, David, he was successfully ejected.
Mrs. O’Toole denied putting her hands on her ex-husband’s throat but did admit to telling him to go away and not to ruin their daughter’s special day. He then pushed her making her fall to the ground, she told the Court.
Cross examined by O’Toole, who asked if he had ever frightened his children, his ex-wife replied that the reason they left was because of his temper and bad behaviour.
Giving evidence, Fahy admitted to grabbing O’Toole to get him out of the church after he heard shouting and a scuffle at the back of the church.
He saw O’Toole swinging his hand towards Mary Teresa making her fall to the ground. The Court heard O’Toole was shouting that he had a ‘God-given right to see his daughter’ and Fahy said he helped to get him out of the church.
David and Louise O’Toole, both in their twenties, gave evidence to Tuam District Court last month when the case started.
Louise said she saw her father strike her mother and that he tried to hit both her and her brother that day.
David O’Toole said he didn’t want any trouble that day so didn’t speak to his father outside the church before the ceremony. He too heard scuffling at the back of the church and saw someone falling to the ground, but hadn’t realised initially that it was his mother.
When he saw Tom Fahy and his father grappling, he helped Tom get his father, who was shouting and cursing at this stage, outside. David returned to see if his mother was alright.
Sergeant Joseph Cosgrove said, when he got to the church, O’Toole had told him he had been assaulted by his ex-wife and her partner. Mrs O’Toole had been taken to hospital by ambulance.
Photographs were taken of O’Toole’s face which showed an injury to the side of his head near his eye – at the resumed hearing in Tuam this week, O’Toole alleged that injury had been caused by his son David.
O’Toole, in cross-examining the Garda, asked why CCTV footage hadn’t been sought but was told there was none. O’Toole said he didn’t believe that and produced his own photographs of surveillance cameras mounted on the church’s exterior walls.
During the first day’s hearing, O’Toole asked for the case to be struck out on the basis that the State had not proved the case against him and he told Judge Gibbons he took exception to his own children being brought as witnesses against him when there were up to 500 other people present in the packed church that day.
The Court was told that a number of people had been asked but one of them wanted to come to Court.
This week, O’Toole said he wasn’t getting a fair trial as no solicitor he had approached locally would represent him and lawyers from further afield quoted sums of €30,000 that he couldn’t afford. He felt he was at a disadvantage having to defend himself.
Later in direct sworn evidence, O’Toole alleged he had been hit and injured by his son. Antoinette McMahon, defending Mrs O’Toole and Fahy, pointed out that this was the first time this had been alleged in two and a half years.
While being cross-examined by the prosecutor, Inspector Declan Rock, O’Toole said he had gone to the confirmation that day to assure his children that he hadn’t abandoned them.
“I thought I was doing good. On the day, I wasn’t angry but insulted that I was being stopped from seeing my own daughter.
“But I won’t give up and I will continue fighting to get them back,” he vowed.
In a statement made to Gardaí on the day of the confirmation, O’Toole said his wife had left because she was having an affair and brought the children, aged 21, 16, twelve, ten, eight and six with her. He had no contact with her since and didn’t want any either.
He said Fahy was the main instigator of the assault and that he had only defended himself.
O’Toole also faced a number of road traffic offences arising out of an incident at Kilmore, Tuam on September 3, 2015.
Sergeant Stan O’Grady said O’Toole had been seen making a U-turn from a line of cars at an official checkpoint.
On the day, the Jeep he was driving had no certificate of road worthiness, no insurance or tax. O’Toole was not co-operative on the day and had to be physically taken out of the vehicle. He was further charged with being in breach of the peace due to his aggressive behaviour.
O’Toole said the Gardaí had no authority under Section 29 of the Treaty of Rome to take a vehicle that wasn’t theirs and that it and its contents worth €70,000 had never been returned to him.
Sgt O’Grady said a fee of €135 plus €35 for each day the car was impounded would secure him the vehicle but that O’Toole had not done that.
O’Toole, a farmer, was convicted and fined a total of €1,550 plus €600 witnesses’ expenses and given six months to pay.
Fahy was convicted of assault and fined €100. The case against Mrs O’Toole was dismissed. Recognisances were fixed.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
