“We should be encouraging people to drink,” said Judge John Neilan ironically as he commented that people are celebrating all kinds of birthdays.
“The more drink that’s drunk, the happier the Minister for Finance will be,” he said referring to revenues earned from the sale of alcohol as he fined 24-year-old Stephen Reilly of Cullionbeg, Mullingar for public intoxication.
A charge of threatening behaviour was withdrawn against the man who pleaded guilty to being drunk on Church Avenue on August 31.
Mr Reilly has four previous convictions.
Ms Patricia Cronin admitted that her client who has a partner and 18-month-old child didn’t have a great history, but said he had been celebrating his birthday.
“When I hear statistics like this, I often wonder why partners and spouses put up with it,” said the judge.
When he heard that Mr Reilly had suffered a tragedy in his life, the judge interrupted Ms Cronin saying “I don’t want to hear about it. Every person on earth experiences tragedy,” and it was “offensive in the extreme” to introduce the issue before the court.
He refused to accept Ms Cronin’s statement that she was introducing the information merely as background and reiterated comments made at previous courts that to use someone’s passing as an excuse in any circumstance was appalling.
