CITY TRIBUNE
Getaway driver for armed robbery avoids jail
A city cocaine addict who agreed to be the getaway driver in the armed robbery of a rural post office in order to pay off his drug debt, received a suspended four-year sentence, along with a community service order.
Mark Dowd (24), 22 Fionn Uisce, Doughiska, took a cousin’s car without permission on January 18, 2018, and drove an accomplice to Woodlawn Post Office where the armed robbery had to be aborted because the safe would not open.
Dowd pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court last November to attempted robbery and to the theft of the car. He did not plead guilty to a third charge of having cocaine in his possession at the time of his arrest.
The prosecution accepted the plea to the first two charges providing facts in the third drugs charge were accepted.
Sentence was adjourned for the preparation of a probation report and a victim impact statement.
Detective Sergeant Paul Duane gave evidence at the sentence hearing that at 8.45am on the morning in question, a man carrying what looked like a firearm entered the private house attached to the Post Office.
Post mistress Chris Doherty had just brought some turf in to light a fire and as she turned to lock the back door behind her, she was confronted by the man.
His face was covered and he appeared to have a handgun. He pointed the gun at her and demanded money.
She went into the Post Office but was unable to open the safe because it had a time lock. The man threatened to shoot her dogs if she didn’t give him the money. She again tried to open the safe but to no avail.
The man then ran out of the post office empty handed, running in the direction of Ballymacward. He was never caught.
Det Duane said that as this was going on, a silver car was observed parked 300 metres away on a nearby side road.
“The accused was in the car. He was the getaway driver but he left without his accomplice – the gunman,” Det Duane said.
The post mistress’s husband, Des Doherty, and postman Daniel Atwood, spoke to Dowd who was sitting in the driver’s seat and he agreed to follow them back to the Post Office.
However, when he got out onto the main road he went in the other direction towards Ballymacward. They followed him as he drove dangerously for 14km until he was stopped by Gardaí in Menlough village.
He was arrested and was found in possession of €70 worth of cocaine.
Det Duane said Dowd came from Ahascragh originally but had lived in Galway City for some time where he worked in a factory earning €450 a week. He lost his job following his arrest for these offences.
He said Dowd had built up a €2,000 drugs debt while feeding a €600-a-week cocaine habit and he had agreed to drive the getaway car to pay off the debt.
Mrs Doherty read her own victim impact statement into evidence, saying Dowd had used his local knowledge to bring the other man to rob her.
Mrs Doherty said she had been a very confident person who loved to get up early and open all the windows and doors to let in the fresh air before opening the post office.
She said that although she ran a post office, she never felt threatened or afraid.
She said everything changed since that day. The Post Office is now closed, she said, and it had been her decision to close it as she felt she couldn’t cope if anything like this happened again.
“You might think that because it was not you who came into my home and held a gun to my face that you’re not to blame. You used your local knowledge to bring that thief to my home.
“Just look at you Mum and think how you would feel if someone came into her home and held a gun to her face,” Mrs Doherty said to Dowd, who hung his head as she read her statement from the witness box.
Defence barrister Conal McCarthy told Mrs Doherty his client wished to apologise to her and her family for all the upset he caused.
Mr McCarthy said his client was now drug-free and taken steps to completely rehabilitate himself with the help of a very supportive family.
Det Duane agreed with counsel that Dowd’s physical appearance had dramatically improved since he first saw him in January 2018, adding he believed Dowd had taken the right steps to ‘sort himself out’.
A very positive probation report also stated Dowd now posed a low risk of reoffending and would be a suitable candidate for community service in lieu of a prison sentence.
Judge Rory McCabe said Dowd’s account was that he had been threatened by people he owed money to for a debt he had accumulated, but that was no excuse for his behaviour as he had taken drugs and accumulated the debt by choice.
He placed the headline sentence for the attempted robbery – before mitigating circumstances were taken into account – at six years, and at 18 months for taking the car.
In mitigation, he said Dowd had pleaded guilty, co-operated with Gardai, and had taken steps to deal with his addiction.
The judge noted the very positive probation report before the court before sentencing Dowd to four years in prison for the attempted robbery, which he suspended for five years on condition Dowd be of good behaviour during that time.
He also directed he carry out 200 hours’ community service in lieu of a 12-month sentence for taking the car.
Judge McCabe explained there was sufficient evidence before the court that Dowd had successfully rehabilitated – which was of benefit to society – to allow him to suspend the four-year sentence.
The prosecution then entered a nolle prosequi – a decision not to proceed with the prosecution – on the drugs charge.
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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