Suspicious duo had weapons in their car

A car that was earlier seen suspiciously coming out of a farmyard in East Galway was eventually stopped by Gardaí who found a baseball bat, a hockey stick and two golf clubs behind the driver’s seat.

Two men in their early twenties, with addresses in Ballygar, were convicted at Ballinasloe Court of being in possession of offensive weapons which they argued were to protect themselves from a rival Traveller gang.

Michael Corcoran (20) of 4 Castle Park, Ballygar, and John Corcoran (21) of 7 Cloonlyon, Ballygar, were also charged with public order offences after verbally abusing the local Garda when stopped.

Garda Pat Regan of Ballygar Garda Station gave evidence that a car was seen emerging from a farmyard at Mount Mary, Ballygar at 10.30pm on July 3 last. The property owner was in hospital at the time and nobody had permission to go into the yard.

When Garda Regan finished work that night, he spotted the same reg car passing the station. He followed the car to Cartron, Ballygar and stopped it at the halting site there.

He informed them that he was carrying out a search of the car and found the baseball bat, hockey stick and golf clubs which the defendants said were for their protection against the Stokes.

Garda Regan seized the items and both defendants got very aggressive with Michael Corcoran, the driver, jumping in front of him and shouting: “You are only a f**king c**t”.

The Garda heard John Corcoran on his phone calling the other members of his family to come from the halting site to the entrance.

John Corcoran started videoing the Garda and two minutes later 10 Travellers arrived on the roadside and four of them started videoing him.

Garda Regan asked the driver Michael Corcoran if this car had earlier been in the farmyard to which the defendant replied: “You are accusing me in the wrong and this will be more cash for me from the State” and then stared rubbing his hands.

Another defendant, John Corcoran snr, also from 7 Cloonlyon, Ballygar arrived on the scene and became aggressive and also called the Garda “a c**t”.

Garda Regan advised this defendant to control himself but he told the Garda to “f**k off”. The Garda left as he believed the situation to be too heated.

A defending barrister said that his clients wanted to work in the security business and a criminal conviction would prevent this from happening.

He said that he had letters from the local parish priest and their family doctor as character references while both had €100 in court as donations to charity.

Judge Deirdre Gearty said that their behaviour was appalling and imposed convictions along with fines of €250 each. Asked if she would reconsider the convictions, Judge Gearty replied: “I don’t reconsider my decisions”.