News
Man armed with machete burst into dinner party
A man has been convicted by a jury of trespassing at a woman’s home while armed with a machete on St. Stephen’s Day last year.
Joseph Moloney (31), of 329 Castlepark, Galway, denied producing a machete, capable of inflicting serious injury, while trespassing at 12 Lios na Run, Ballybane on December 26 last year.
He also denied trespassing at the property on the same occasion. The jury of eight men and four women returned a majority 10:2 guilty verdict yesterday evening. Sentence will follow in January.
The two-day trial heard evidence from Avril McCann, who lives at 12 Lios na Run, that she was hosting a dinner party on St. Stephen’s Day for her mother, her stepfather, one of her friends, Kelly Bailey, and her friend’s husband when she answered a knock at the front door around 9pm.
She saw a man standing there, wearing a balaclava, with a machete in his hand.
She told the jury the man said nothing but he brushed past her and went into the sitting room. There was nobody there.
He pushed past her again and went into the kitchen where her guests were still sitting around the dinner table.
Ms McCann said she was shocked and she asked the man what was he doing there. He made no reply.
“He pointed the weapon at all the people in the kitchen. He stared me in the eyes and I knew him then. I’ve known him all my life. I know it was him,” Ms McCann told the jury.
She said that when he turned his back to her as he walked into the kitchen ahead of her, she knew it was Maloney from his build.
He pointed the machete in turn at her guests without saying anything.
He then lifted the balaclava up above his eyes and grinned at Ms McCann, before turning and walking out of the house.
Ms McCann said she felt absolutely terrified and started screaming at Maloney as he walked out the door, calling him a “cheeky bastard”.
Defence barrister, William Hughes BL, put it to Ms McCann that her best friend, Kelly Bailey was Mulhall before she married and that his client’s fiancee, Tara Mulhall, was her sister.
Tara Mulhall, he said, was the mother of his client’s two children and the couple had got engaged on December 23 last year.
“Is it fair to say that Kelly Bailey and Joseph Moloney would not be very close?”, he asked.
Ms McCann replied she knew they didn’t have much dealings with each other.
“My client was not there that day and I’m putting it to you that this allegation has its genesis in the connection between Kelly Bailey and Joseph Maloney,” the barrister said.
“You are totally wrong,” she replied.
Ms McCann’s mother, Kim McDonagh, gave evidence she recognised Maloney that evening as she had known him all her life. “I know Joe Maloney all my life. I knew him straight away. He just pointed the machete at every one of us. He just stood there and said nothing whatsoever.
He pulled the balaclava up over his eyes and I knew him,” she said.
Kelly Bailey, nee Mulhall, gave evidence she recognised Maloney when he pulled the balaclava above his eyes.
“He’s my sister’s partner, my sister Tara,” Mrs Bailey said.
Mr Hughes asked her if she ‘got on’ with her sister.
“We haven’t spoken since this event and we had our ups and downs prior to that,” she replied.
Mr Hughes asked her how she had reacted on hearing of the engagement.
“Tara told me herself she got engaged. I was shocked. I was surprised. I wasn’t expecting it,” she replied.
He put it to her that the couple had two children and had been together for years.
“They had been on and off over the years,” she said.
Mr Hughes put it to the witness that she had told Gardai there was a lot of “history” between her sister Tara and his client and she didn’t like it.
“Personally, I feel he treats my sister badly. That is my own opinion. I do not have a grudge against him,” Mrs Bailey said.
Mr Hughes disagreed. He said she was not happy to see the relationship progress.
“No”, she replied.
Garda Pauline de Poar gave evidence she arrested Maloney on January 5 last. Six witnesses had named him and she had no doubt he had gone to the house that evening.
Tara Mulhall, in evidence, said she and Maloney had been in a relationship for 13 years and two of her three children were his.
“It’s a normal relationship. It has its ups and downs. Right now its good and we’re engaged,” she said.
In reply to Mr Hughes, she said her relationship with her family was “up and down”, too, and she had problems with two of them.
She said she was in bed asleep with her two children on December 26 last when she got a phone call from her sister, Kelly Bailey.
“She asked me where was Joe and I told her he was out with friends.
My sister then said, ‘It was f**kin’ him. It was definitely him.’ I hung up and that was it,” she said.
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
