CITY TRIBUNE
Repeat offender jailed for litany of alcohol-fuelled offences
A drunken woman was full of the wrong spirit when she bit a hospital security guard, threw hot coffee at him and pulled decorations off a tree as she was being ‘escorted’ from UHG on Christmas Day last year.
Bianca Fahy (45), 110 An Sean Bhaile, Doughiska, appeared in custody before Galway District Court where she pleaded guilty to a plethora of alcohol-fuelled offences which occurred over a ten-month period from last August to May of this year.
The Zimbabwean national, who has lived in Ireland since 1992, and suffers from a serious medical condition, pleaded guilty to numerous Public Order offences and two assault offences, committed at UHG, and to further Public Order and theft offences committed around the city.
Fifteen Gardaí and a number of victims – some of them hospital staff – had come to court to give evidence, but their presence was not required once it emerged Fahy would not be contesting the charges.
Following the guilty plea, Inspector Karen Maloney withdrew a further twelve charges.
She said that a number of the offences were committed at the hospital – two of them last Christmas Day – and that, while staff there found Fahy’s behaviour unacceptable, they said they would not turn her away whenever she required treatment.
Insp Maloney said Garda Seamus Hurley was called to the hospital at 6.15am on May 25 last where Fahy was a patient in A&E.
She had become aggressive when a nurse woke her up and had punched the nurse in the chest. She was arrested a short time later at Bridge Street in an intoxicated state.
Two further incidents occurred at the hospital on Christmas Day last year.
Fahy first arrived in an intoxicated state at the hospital at 1.25pm to visit a patient.
She caused a disturbance in one of the wards and ignored requests from nursing staff to leave. When she was told by security officer Tom Coyne that she would be physically removed if she did not leave of her own accord, Fahy had shouted: “You can’t touch me.”
Mr Coyne had then escorted her from the ward. On the way out, Fahy became aggressive, knocking everything off the nurses’ station. She threw flowers on the floor and threw a cup of coffee at Mr Coyne.
She proceeded to knock over a Christmas tree, throwing decorations and bits of the tree around a corridor.
She repeatedly kicked Mr Coyne and bit his left hand. He was wearing gloves at the time and neither the gloves nor the skin were broken.
Fahy remained extremely aggressive as she was being brought outside the hospital to wait for Gardaí. She continued to kick the security guard in the legs and again bit his gloved hand.
The second Christmas Day incident occurred at 7.20pm when Fahy returned to the hospital and caused another disturbance at A&E. Gardaí were called again and she was charged with breaching the peace.
Two days earlier, on December 23, Gardaí were dealing with another incident in An Sean Bhaile when Fahy started shouting and roaring at them. She was told to leave the area but refused and was arrested.
The emergency services were called to Fahy’s address at 1.30am on December 20 last. Fahy became very abusive to ambulance personnel and tried to obstruct them as they were removing her partner from the house on a stretcher to bring him to hospital.
On September 17 last year, Fahy threw rocks at a neighbour’s home, causing €750 worth of damage to the windows and front door.
Insp. Maloney said Fahy pulled a watch off a bus driver’s wrist in Eyre Square at 2.45pm on May 18 last, causing €50 worth of damage to the strap. Gardaí found Fahy nearby. A search revealed she was carrying a pliers and a scissors in her handbag.
She was charged under the Firearms Act with having the implements in her handbag and with causing criminal damage to the watch.
Insp. Maloney said the next offence occurred later that same night, at 11.40pm when hospital security staff alerted Gardaí that Fahy was intoxicated and walking out on the roadway in front of traffic at Newcastle Road. She was arrested for her own safety and charged with being drunk in public.
Garda Michelle Berry encountered Fahy at 5.15pm on May 10 last when she received a report of two people causing a disturbance on Doughiska Road.
Garda Berry found Fahy lying on the footpath in an extremely intoxicated state. She was arrested for being a danger to herself and to traffic.
Fahy pleaded guilty also to stealing two bottles of wine from Centra in Forster Street on May 9 last and to stealing €80 worth of clothing from TK Maxx on the same date.
Gardaí were again called to UHG by staff at 9.35pm on April 20 because Fahy was intoxicated and very aggressive. She was arrested and charged with being drunk and breaching the peace.
Fahy caused a disturbance too at a sitting of Galway District Court on April 9. She began to shout in the courtroom but was taken outside by Garda Sharon Lynch and told to stay outside until her case was called. She came back in and started to shout again at the presiding judge. She was arrested and charged with being drunk in public.
Fahy was again arrested at the hospital at 2.55am on March 30 last after arriving there in a very intoxicated state.
Earlier that night, she had gone into the Clayton Hotel at 10.30pm looking for a room for the night, even though she had no money to pay for it.
Gardaí were called when Fahy refused to leave and they found her slumped against a pillar in the lobby.
On March 29 last, Gardaí were called to a disturbance at the Cash Factory on the Tuam Road and found Fahy in a very intoxicated state.
On March 22 last, Fahy assaulted a female member of staff at Paddy Powers bookmakers.
Gardaí were called to a disturbance outside Presentation School on Presentation Road at 1.30pm on March 13 last. They found Fahy lying on the footpath, unable to walk due to intoxication.
Insp. Maloney said the accused had 40 previous convictions, which included nine for theft, six for Public Order, 20 for road traffic offences, one for assault, one for a serious assault and the remainder for criminal damage and possession of drugs.
The court heard she was serving sentences totalling nine months which were imposed in early July for other similar offences.
Defence solicitor, Deirdre Sharkey said Fahy was a Zimbabwean national who had come to Ireland in 1992. The court was told Fahy’s partner had brought €400 to court to pay for the damage to his neighbour’s home.
In reply to Judge Fiona Lydon, Inspector Maloney said Fahy had been granted bail last January and had gone on to commit a lot of the offences before the court while out on bail.
The judge imposed sentences totalling twelve months on several of the charges and imposed an additional four-month sentence for the assault on the nurse, which she suspended for two years on condition Fahy come under the supervision of the probation service on her release from prison. Free legal aid was granted.
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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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