CITY TRIBUNE
Man who tried to aid stranger on ground had his jaw broken
A Good Samaritan had his jaw broken in two places when he stopped to help a stranger who had been knocked to the ground during a melee outside a city nightclub.
Surgeons wired the victim’s mouth shut for six weeks after screwing two metal plates into his jawbone to rebuild it following the assault which took place outside Carbon nightclub on Eglinton Street, in the early hours of May 8, 2015.
His attacker, Tom Tyrell (22), from Aughnanure, Oughterard, pleaded guilty to assault, causing harm, when he first appeared before Galway Circuit Criminal Court in March. Sentence was adjourned to last week’s court for the preparation of reports and to give Tyrell time to address the issue of compensation.
Garda Dermot Hardiman said the victim (21), had witnessed a fight in progress as he was leaving a nightclub and he went to assist a stranger lying on the ground.
Tyrell punched him into the face as he did so and he sustained two fractures to his jawbone.
The victim did not wish to attend court but the Garda read his impact statement into evidence on his behalf.
In his statement, the victim said he had suffered excruciating pain following the attack and he had not been able to speak or eat proper food while his mouth was wired shut. He had to sip his food through a straw, had lost a lot of weight and had given up contact sport. His education had suffered and he became depressed and could not work.
He said that Tyrell had approached him outside Supermac’s a few weeks after the attack and had said to him: “I have enough shit to deal with, without you adding to it.”
He said he had been in fear ever since.
“I feel I can never escape that night. I have a constant reminder of it every time I eat or go out,” he said.
Garda Hardiman said Tyrell now worked in stables in Tipperary. He said the accused had three previous convictions for assaults. He had been convicted in January 2016 of two assaults which took place in October 2014. One was a common assault while the other was for a more serious assault, causing harm. He had received a five-month prison sentence which was suspended for two years.
The third conviction was for another serious assault which also took place in 2014 and for which he had also received another suspended sentence. Compensation was paid in all three cases, he added.
Defence barrister, Conal McCarthy said his client had brought €500 to court to offer to the latest victim and if given time he would come up with more compensation.
He said the assault occurred during a melee involving 30 to 40 people who had come out of Carbon nightclub.
Mr McCarthy said Tyrell had not come to Garda attention since that night and the three previous assault convictions occurred when he was 19.
“While he comes from a respectable family, he has been a blackguard and a menace on occasions when he has been drinking, but the Gardai are satisfied he has calmed down in the last two years because he’s in a relationship and his girlfriend has been a positive role model for him,” Mr McCarthy said.
He suggested it was too early for the court to finalise sentence and he asked for time for his client to gather more compensation.
“The victim tried to help a man on the ground and got his jaw broken for his trouble. He suffered a horrible injury.
“This is a very familiar scene; too much alcohol, no self-control and not much in the way of common sense or decency,” Judge Rory McCabe said of Tyrell’s violent behaviour on the night.
He noted Tyrell had previous convictions for similar crimes of violence and another aggravating factor was his lack of self-control due to intoxication.
The judge said the headline sentence for this attack was four-and-a-half years, but he decided to adjourn sentence to next April based on the recommendations of a probation report which and for the payment of more compensation to the victim.
He directed Tyrell come under the supervision of the probation service until April.
“The harsh reality is he needs to convince me that he has changed his ways,” Judge McCabe warned.
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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