News
Breast bitten as women brawled over boyfriend
A woman has been given a suspended two-year sentence for biting another woman’s breast during a row over a man in a pub.
Tara Boyle (31), with an address at 45 Cluain Rí, Athenry, and formerly of Caherlistrane, Headford, pleaded guilty to assaulting her 33-year-old victim, causing her harm on October 20, 2013.
Garda Vicky Duggan told the sentence hearing at Galway Circuit Criminal Court last week that the assault took place at 1.50a.m. after an exchange of words between both women regarding Boyle’s boyfriend.
Garda Duggan said a friend of the victim had been chatting up Boyle’s boyfriend in the pub that night and Boyle approached the victim, (a blonde-haired woman who was present in court for the hearing), to tell her to get her friend to stop coming on to her boyfriend of she would pull her hair out.
The victim told her it was none of her business and words exchanged between both women led to the assault, whereby Boyle bit the victim on her left breast as both women grappled with each other on the floor.
Boyle was later interviewed by Gardai and she told them the woman’s friend had tried it on with her boyfriend. She said she asked the woman to get her friend to stop but the woman became aggressive towards her.
Boyle claimed she bit the woman because the woman was pulling her hair out as they fought on the floor.
Garda Duggan agreed with prosecuting barrister, Conor Fahy, that there was some degree of provocation involved.
In a victim impact statement read to the court by the Garda, the woman said she had to return her wedding dress and order a different one for her May wedding last year, due to the permanent scar still visible on her breast.
She said she could no longer enjoy herself when out socialising and was afraid of meeting Boyle. Her children had asked her questions about the scar and she knew she would have to live with it for the rest of her life. “I didn’t deserve to be scarred,” she stated.
Mr Fahy said the victim had to have a Hepatitis C vaccination as she was a health care worker. She had been left with a permanent scar which may require plastic surgery and she had to attend for follow-up blood screening for a year after the attack, he said.
Defence barrister, Brendan Browne said his client had not come to Garda attention since this incident.
He said she had two children from two previous relationships and has had a new partner for the past three years.
He said his client could only secure the release of her own hair during the assault by doing what she did to the victim.
A very positive report on his client had been handed into court, Mr Browne added.
Judge Rory McCabe said Boyle had only changed her plea to guilty after a jury had been empanelled to hear evidence in the trial in February.
He said the offence carried a maximum five-year sentence, but given Boyle’s plea, albeit late and the fact she had no previous convictions for violent crime, the judge said the appropriate sentence was three years in prison.
In further mitigation, he said Boyle had not come to adverse Garda attention since and she had two children, but perhaps, he said, she should have thought of them before she did this.
The judge did not accept Boyle had been provoked. “She should have walked away, but she didn’t,” he said.
The only thing Boyle had going for her, the judge said, was the very positive probation report before the court and taking that into account, he imposed a two-year sentence which he suspended for five years.
“What would your children think if they knew about this?”, Judge McCabe asked Boyle.
“They would be highly ashamed,” she replied.
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
