KILKENNY -- One of the best reads in Ireland are the accounts of local court cases carried by the Kilkenny People. These gems appear this week:
- Algerian Fouad Harras ran into a graveyard after midnight and fell down in front of Garda Quirke. He was arrested for his own safety and fined €50.
- Judge Mary Martin thinks the lack of local servies such as community centres has given rise to an "unbelieveable" rural drug problem.
- Local musician Tony O'Dwyer from Kieran's Crescent failed to pay over €3000 compensation for his crimes and was sentenced to 11 months in jail. He was previously convicted of forging cheques, stealing a car and causing damage to a Jaguar.
- Catherine Flood and Charles Brennan were drunk and lying in the middle of Chatsworth Street, Castlecomer. They were ordered to pay €350 to the poor box.
- On the run-up to a long string of office Christmas parties, a half dozen drivers were fined €250 for being drunk behind the wheel. Most of the light drinkers are put off the road for three months.
- Two women in Castlecomer who filed assault complaints against each other were fined €200 each for wasting garda time.
- A 15-year old schoolboy who stole a minimum of four handbags was put on a year's probation.
- Mother-of-three Geraldine Campion was charged with haviing drugs for sale in her 75 Newpark Close home.
It would make an interesting map if I shwoed the home addresses of all the perpetrators. Because of Kilkenny's inclusive housing policies, I walk past the homes of two of those cited in the weekly crime reports when en route to centre city Kilkenny.
Extracted from the Kilkenny People, October 29, 2004.
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