CITY TRIBUNE
Convicted of breaching peace on bus at height of Covid restrictions
From the Galway City Tribune – A District Court judge told a man last week it was his own damning phone video footage – of an interaction he had with Gardai when he refused to wear a face mask on a packed bus at the height of Covid restrictions two years ago – that had helped to convict him of public order offences.
46-year-old anti-mask, anti-vaccine campaigner Daragh O’Flaherty, of the Fairgreen Hostel, contested a charge of breaching the peace by engaging in threatening, abusive and insulting words or behaviour with intent to provoke a breach of the peace or being reckless as to whether a breach of the peace may have been occasioned, contrary to Section 6 of the Public Order Act 1994 at Dublin Road, Galway, on September 6, 2020.
He also denied a charge of failing to comply with the directions of Garda Kevin Molyneaux and leave the bus and the area when directed to do so on the same date.
Garda Molyneaux, who arrested and charged O’Flaherty at the time, gave evidence that he, Garda Damien Walsh and Garda Aiden Cunningham were directed to go to a Bus Éireann bus which was pulled in at the bus stop across the road from GMIT and adjacent to Gardai HQ following a complaint from the bus driver.
The driver told him O’Flaherty got on the bus at Doughiska not wearing a face mask, in breach of Covid-19 regulations in place at the time. The driver decided to carry on the journey as far as the bus stop in Renmore which is beside the Garda station and rang ahead to alert Gardaí that O’Flaherty was refusing to wear a face mask.
He said the driver refused to drive the bus any further while O’Flaherty remained on board and the Garda said he observed passengers were becoming agitated with O’Flaherty for delaying their journey.
While he was speaking to O’Flaherty he said he heard the passengers shouting: “Get him off the bus. He’s not wearing a mask. We want to go, get him off the bus.”
Garda Molyneaux said he believed O’Flaherty’s behaviour was reckless as he had agitated the other passengers and such behaviour could lead to a breach of the peace. He said he also failed to comply with his directions under Section 8 of the Public Order Act – to get off the bus and leave the area.
After several requests to comply, O’Flaherty still refused to leave the bus and passengers began to shout even louder.
Garda Molyneaux said O’Flaherty accused him and his colleagues of breaching his rights and told them he had a right to be on the bus. He told them he didn’t need to wear a mask, before two of the Gardaí escorted him off the bus.
Garda Molyneaux showed CCTV footage to the court, taken from two cameras on the bus, of the entire incident.
O’Flaherty showed his own video footage of his interaction with Gardaí, recorded on his phone. He can he heard on his own video, arguing with the Gardai and telling them he had a medical certificate to prove he was exempt from wearing a face mask, but he refused to show it to them. He could also be heard telling Gardai the incident was being posted on Facebook.
O’Flaherty told Judge John King he had a medical certificate to prove he suffered from concussion and a stress-related condition which exempted him from having to wear a mask.
In reply to the judge, he said he did not have the certificate in court to show him.
After hearing over an hour of O’Flaherty’s repetitive cross-examination of Garda Molyneaux, and then giving evidence himself, Judge King convicted him of both Public Order offences.
“The most interesting thing in this case is your own phone video footage. You say to the Gardaí that you have a medical certificate but you are not going to show it to them.
“You’re argumentative and your own video is a lot more damning than the CCTV shown by Garda Molyneaux.
“You have rights, but so does everyone else and under the health regulations in place at the time, you should have been wearing a mask,” Judge King told him.
He said the court had been shown no proof of any medical condition even though the onus was on O’Flaherty to prove he had a medical condition which would exempt him from wearing a mask.
In a separate prosecution, O’Flaherty denied a charge of failing to appear before Galway District Court on September 1 last year.
A bench warrant was issued by the court at the time which Garda Wesley Kelly, who gave evidence to the court this week, said he executed in Dublin on September 29 last year.
He said he released O’Flaherty on bail at the time to appear back before the court in Galway.
Garda Long confirmed O’Flaherty had 25 previous convictions, which were mostly Public Order offences.
He said he had received a four-month sentence at Galway District Court on July 20, 2020, for obstructing Gardaí, which had been suspended for one year, on condition he be of good behaviour and not reoffend.
The judge noted that as this offence occurred just over a month after that sentence was imposed and during the suspended period of the sentence, the matter would have to go back to Judge Mary Fahy to see if she wanted to activate that sentence now.
Judge King fined O’Flaherty €300 for breaching the peace and sentenced him to two months in prison for failing to comply with Garda directions to leave the bus and the area. He suspended the sentence for two years on condition O’Flaherty be of good behaviour and not reoffend.
He warned O’Flaherty that while that sentence was now suspended, it didn’t mean the other suspended sentence imposed by Judge Mary Fahy in July 2020, might not be activated.
The judge referred that suspended sentence back for Judge Fahy’s consideration. The judge said he would have to adjourn other charges O’Flaherty was facing because the prosecuting Gardaí in those cases were not present in court.
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.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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