BY DAVID FORSYTHE
A MAN who threw a carton of curry chips at gardaí as he was ejected from a music festival later demanded that they give him a lift home from the garda station because it was ‘their civic duty’, the district court has heard.
Court presenter Sgt Brian Harte told Macroom District Court that gardaí were asked to assist security staff at the Inchigeela Music Festival in the early hours of Sunday August 25th, where a male was behaving in an aggressive manner. When gardaí arrived the male, identified as Evan O’Driscoll, (22), of Creaghmore, was described as ‘irate and aggressive’ and was refusing to leave the site as requested by the security staff.
When gardaí attempted to calm Mr O’Driscoll down, he continued to be abusive and threw a carton of curry chips at them. Despite further attempts to get him to leave the scene peacefully, he was arrested at 2.35am and taken to Macroom Garda Station, where he was charged with being intoxicated in a public place.
Mr O’Driscoll was held in the station until 5.15am when he was released. Despite being asked to do so, Mr O’Driscoll refused to leave the station foyer because of the bad weather and instead demanded to be driven home by gardaí. Mr O’Driscoll told gardaí it was their ‘civic duty’ to drive him home and refused to leave the station. He stayed in the foyer of the station for 45 minutes and was eventually charged with refusing to comply with garda directions.
Defence solicitor Patrick Goold said his client was ‘extremely embarrassed’ by what had happened. He said that he had called the garda station to apologise and admitted the offences.
Mr Goold said that Mr O’Driscoll had ended up drinking vodka at the festival – which he did not normally drink – because the queues for beer were so long. He said his client was an apprentice plumber who had no previous convictions.
Judge James McNulty said: ‘Public order offending is an expensive business in West Cork and this is going to cost him a grand.’ Mr O’Driscoll was convicted and fined €500 for each offence.
