US tourist told ‘welcome to Ireland’ after glassing

A man has been jailed for four months for glassing a visiting American student in the face, punching and spitting at him, and then saying “welcome to Ireland.”

21-year-old Calvin McCormack of Gaelic Park, Bundoran, pleaded guilty at Sligo District Court to assaulting Mr William Craig in the Chasing Bull bar on Main Street, Bundoran on 20 th October last.

Taking the witness stand, the victim told Judge Kevin Kilrane that he was in the smoking area of the Chasing Bull when a friend of his asked for a cigarette.

“Someone got mad and had my friend by the throat. I tried to calm the situation and the next thing I knew I had a glass smashed in my face,” the victim said.

He said a “big circle formed” and two people spat at him and they said “Welcome to Ireland.”

“I’m quite sure the person who spat at me was the person who smashed the glass in my face,” said Mr Craig.

He told the judge he was here on a Gap year three month placement from the USA.

“I have a scar on my left cheek. It seems as if it’s staying at the moment. I’m in Ireland for another two weeks,” he said.

Judge Kilrane asked the witness if he was hit by a pint glass or a shot glass, at which point Mr John Anderson, solicitor for the defence, interjected and said he had seen from CCTV footage that it was a pint glass used in the assault.

Mr Craig said the side of the glass was used on his face and it “broke on impact” causing him to bleed “badly.”

Judge Kilrane asked the victim if anyone came to his assistance.

“I left the bar and was walking home and someone saw me on the street bleeding,” said Mr Craig.

The court heard from Garda witnesses that the defendant was seen on CCTV smashing the glass in the victim’s face, giving him another two punches and then spat in his face twice.

Mr Anderson told the court that the defendant stated his “utmost apology” to his victim and had no previous convictions.

He said McCormack had had some interaction with the Americans - “banter” and “regrettably he had the glass in his hand, hit his face and had reactions beyond that.”

A letter from his former school principal was handed up to the judge.

“It was totally out of character” said Mr Anderson, adding that McCormack was currently on a TUS course, after he left an engineering course at Letterkenny IT.

“He would come with compensation but he just doesn’t have it,” he said.

He said his client would say the Americans were looking for “cigarettes and other substances” off people in the smoking area which annoyed his client but did not justify the “disgraceful” assault.

Judge Kilrane said if someone were genuinely remorseful on seeing the bleeding after the attack would not go on to punch, spit at and then utter “Welcome to Ireland” which was “shocking.”

He said Community Service was not appropriate and sentenced McCormack to four months in prison for the assault.