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Firebug youth in ‘glassing’ attack while out on bail
A youth who smashed a glass across another youth’s head while out on bail awaiting trial for setting fire to a €400,000 retail and residential complex in Ballybane, has been jailed for four and a half years with two years suspended.
Judge Rory McCabe had warned Ross McDonagh (19), of 127 Ard Alainn, Ballybane, that he would be going away to prison for at least five years if he did not work with the relevant services to rehabilitate himself, when he first appeared before Galway Circuit Court last November.
He pleaded guilty then to damaging by fire the Ballybane Neighbourhood Village Complex on November 17, 2012.
The sentence hearing was told McDonagh was with a group of other youths when he went around the back of the Complex and set fire to a plastic chair in a storage area.
He left the area shortly afterwards and the fire spread to the adjacent building which housed a Gala supermarket, five other retail units and ten upstairs apartments.
Detective John Lavery said it was “the luck of God” that no one was badly injured or even killed in the fire. The alarms had gone off and people were able to evacuate in time, he said.
Det. Lavery said the fire spread quickly and caused structural as well as smoke damage to the entire building with the total insurance bill for the damage and loss of earnings coming to €419,333.
McDonagh, admitted to Gardai that he had gone into a refrigerated unit and set fire to a chair there.
The court was told McDonagh, who was 17 years old and living with his mother at the time, had 16 previous convictions, had dropped out of school at 14, was hanging around with the wrong crowd and was drinking too much.
Defence barrister, Brendan Browne conceded McDonagh was out of control.
Prosecuting barrister, Conor Fahy said McDonagh’s bail was revoked last July and he was taken into custody after he breached some of the bail terms while awaiting trial for the arson charge. The trial date in November was vacated when McDonagh pleaded, he said.
Sentence was adjourned to December 12, but on that date the court was told McDonagh was due to be sent forward to the Circuit Court again in January, this time charged with assault.
Judge McCabe agreed to adjourn all of the charges – which McDonagh pleaded guilty to – for sentence to last Friday.
Garda Neil Lydon gave evidence then that McDonagh assaulted two youngsters at 12.40a.m. on June 21 last – while he was out on bail on the arson charge.
He said McDonagh was drinking with a group of boys and girls outside a pub in Eyre Street. He became aggressive when a group of other young men said “hello girls” as they passed by.
He followed the other group up the street, threatening to assault one of them.
The group kept walking to avoid any trouble but McDonagh kept following them and smashed a pint glass over one young man’s head.
The victim had to go to A&E where the deep wound was glued.
Reading reports handed into court, Judge McCabe said every chance had been given to McDonagh to change his life around but he had not availed of any of them and remained at a high risk of reoffending.
The Judge imposed a three-year sentence for the arson and a consecutive eighteen months for the assault. He suspended the final two years of the four-and-a-half year sentence .
Some 60 tourism companies from Ireland attended ‘Flavours of Ireland’ 2022 in London last week – including Connemara Wild Escapes, DK Connemara Oysters and Killary Fjord Boat Tours.
‘Flavours’ is Tourism Ireland’s annual B2B tourism workshop, where tourism companies from Ireland meet and do business with top global inbound tour operators.
Now in its 20th year, ‘Flavours’ took place in the Guildhall, in the City of London, and was attended by around 100 global inbound tour operators who deliver business from all over the world, including the United States, Mainland Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa.
‘Flavours’ provides an excellent opportunity for the participating tourism providers from Galway and Ireland to highlight and sell their tourism product and build valuable relationships with the key decision-makers in attendance.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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From the Galway City Tribune – The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) has asked Galway City Council to roll back material alterations to the new City Development Plan proposed by councillors.
In July, elected members voted through a raft of changes to zonings in the Draft City Development Plan 2023-29, which went out on public display.
But the Planning Regulator has now warned City Hall that many of the proposed changes do not comply with the OPR’s recommendations, and are contrary to national planning guidelines.
The OPR specifically highlighted problems with proposals to rezone as residential land deemed at risk of flooding.
Anne Marie O’Connor, Deputy Regulator, wrote to the Council’s Planning Department outlining the OPR’s fresh advice on the changes to the draft plan proposed and approved by councillors.
The draft plan will come before elected members again this month.
Councillors will be asked to row back on some of their previous material alterations, which ran contrary to advice of the OPR.
Ms O’Connor said the OPR welcomed many of the changes made by the City Council in its draft plan. She said, however, that the OPR “has a number of outstanding concerns relating to the response of the planning authority to its recommendations and to a number of proposed material alterations relating to the zoning of lands”.
These relate to changes that conflict with national and regional objectives for compact growth; with legislative requirements regarding climate action and core strategies; and with rezoning land at risk of flooding.
The OPR highlighted a dozen or more material alterations by councillors that are “not consistent” with the National Planning Framework for compact growth.
These include re-zoning of land from agricultural or recreational and amenity to residential.
The changes voted on by councillors, the OPR noted, were done against the advice of the Council’s Chief Executive Brendan McGrath.
The OPR said the changes proposed by councillors represented a “piecemeal approach” to zoning and were “inconsistent” with national policy.
These comments related to proposed rezoning of land at Rahoon; Dublin Road; Quarry Road, Menlo; Ballindooley; off Circular Road; Menlo village; Roscam and Barna Woods.
The OPR also raised “significant concerns” over five material alterations proposed for residential zonings of land at Western Distributor Road; Terryland; Menlo Village; Headford Road and Barna Woods which are located within flood zones.
The approach by councillors “may place people and property at unnecessary risk from future flood events”, the OPR warned.
Ms O’Connor told planners that if the draft plan ignores the OPR advice or is at odds with its recommendations, the Council Chief Executive must inform the OPR in writing the reasons for doing so.
Save Roscam Peninsula in a 33-page submission to the draft plan echoed many of the concerns outlined by the OPR.
The Council has pencilled in four dates in November and December to approve the plan.
It will meet on November 21, 24 and 28 and December 1 when material alterations will be voted on individually.
This article first appeared in the print edition of the Galway City Tribune, November 4. You can support our journalism by subscribing to the Galway City Tribune HERE. The print edition is in shops every Friday.
JOHN HARNEY from Mountpleasant first joined the Ballinasloe Horse and Agriculture Show Committee, all of 60-years ago, on April 24, 1962. Both John and the show are still going strong as they celebrate their 183rd event on this Sunday. Here, he looks back on his involvement with this iconic show through the years.
THE Ballinasloe Show back in the early 1960s was going well with both the Showgrounds and Duggan Park both used for running the competitions.
My first introduction to the show was stewarding the pony competitions in the Mountpleasant end of the Duggan Park with the rest of the GAA field being used for trade stands.
At that time, it was a very big show with horses, ponies, cattle and sheep, pigs and fowl – also there was a big garden and farm produce section as well as a home craft and baking section with flowers and plants supported by a very large women’s committee.
At that time, showjumping took place in the afternoon with the top riders in the country taking part. I was elected Chairman at the AGM in 1975, a position I held for ten years.
During that time, the Duggan Park Committee approached the Show Committee for a piece of the showgrounds behind the GAA Stand for dressing rooms.
This was brought up a number of times at our committee meetings, and at first, the view was that the Duggan Park Committee would buy the ground.
However, after much deliberation it was decided by the Show Committee to ‘give the ground’ for the sum of £1 with the proviso that the dressingrooms could be used on show days by the local ICA to do catering for the event.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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