A Ballybane man with an appalling history of road traffic offences had a five month sentence reactivated and was jailed for a further eight months after being caught driving dangerously while drunk in the middle of a crowd during Galway Rally weekend as well as attempting to hot-wire a car.
Eamon McDonagh (21 ) with an address at 19 Sliabh Rua, Ballybane, appeared before Judge Mary Fahy at Galway District Court on Monday where he pleaded guilty to a number of offences.
Inspector Mick Coppinger told the court the court that on January 4, 2012, at 4.30am the defendant was observed sitting in the driver’s seat of a car parked in the driveway of a house at Clareview Park, Ballybane, and attempting to hot-wire it. The inspector added that the car had been stolen earlier that day in Loughrea but that there was no evidence to suggest that McDonagh was involved in that. A month later, on February 4, Garda Paul O’Donoghue was in the Terryland area when he came across as a large crowd. The court heard that it had been Galway Rally week and that the defendant was seen driving a car at excessive speed dangerously near to the crowd of enthusiasts. When McDonagh saw the gardai he took off and a minor chase ensued. Inspector Coppinger said that McDonagh failed to stop initially when directed to but that he did stop later on down the road. The defendant was arrested on suspicion of drink driving and brought to Galway Garda Station where he gave an intoxiliser reading of 72mgs of alcohol per 100ml of breath. On March 16, 2011, at Ballybane Shopping Centre the defendant was stopped driving a car without having insurance and then failed to produce insurance.
Defence solicitor Alma Whelan said that in relation to the incident on February 4 there had been a lot of alcohol consumed and that it had been a “minor chase”. Ms Whelan said that her client insists that he had stopped for gardai “when he became aware” that they were there. She added that McDonagh has a tendency to get in trouble when he binge drinks.
Inspector Coppinger then informed the court that McDonagh has a “terrible record” with 53 previous convicitions which include four convictions for dangerous driving, six for driving without insurance, two for theft, four for drink driving, one for robbery, and one conviction for assault causing harm.
“It’s appalling, he was given a chance. He seems to have difficulty with alcohol, and with cars,” said Judge Fahy before reactivating a five month sentence which had been suspended in relation to a previous conviction. For the latest offences Judge Fahy convicted McDonagh and imposed a total of eight months in jail, to run consecutively to the five months already imposed, and a disqualification from driving for nine years. The sentence was backdated to February 4.
