Bus hijacking ‘bandits’ jailed
Cousins sparked 100km cross-border police pursuit
TWO cousins who hijacked a bus with three people on board were jailed yesterday.
Stephen Mcdonagh, 26, and 27-year-old John Mcdonagh stole a courtesy bus at the Carlton Hotel near Dublin Airport last January.
Three tourists were onboard the vehicle which was driven towards Belfast in the two-hour ordeal.
At Cavan Circuit Court Judge John Aylmer was told they crossed the border at Armagh before returning into the Republic where they stole a car near Castleblayney, Co Monaghan.
Before that, they hit a Garda car on the N2 near Dundalk, Co Louth, with such force it removed the vehicle’s front wheel. After crossing over into Cullaville, the bus collided with and damaged a PSNI car.
After the passengers, who said the pair behaved like “bandits”, were let off at a hotel at Julianstown, the bus was stopped at Balbriggan.
Stephen Mcdonagh, of the Steeples, Navan, Co Meath, appeared on screen from Dublin’s Cloverhill.
He was sentenced to five years for reckless endangerment at Junction 11, two-and-a-half years for the unlawful taking of a vehicle, four for unlawfully taking the minibus and four years for false imprisonment.
Cousin John, of the same address, is currently behind bars at Mountjoy. He was handed four years for the three charges of false imprisonment, four for knowingly being a passenger in a stolen bus and two-and-a-half years for being carried in the stolen car.
CHARLIE Haughey plucked a female senator’s bra strap in Leinster House as he passed her in the corridor, a new book claims.
Former Education Minister Gemma Hussey revealed details in the book entitled Proud To Serve – The Voices Of The Women Of Cumann na ngaedheal And Fine Gael 1922–1992.
Ms Hussey said: “The next minute I felt a chuck on my bra strap.
“I leapt to my feet and there was Haughey behind me with a half-smile on his face.
“‘Just coming to tell you Senator, don’t worry about your Bill on marital rape. I’ll see that through with the help of my very good new Minister for Justice Sean Doherty.’’
Ms Hussey revealed the way things were amid the ongoing challenges women faced in politics.
She recalled: “The nearest loo was two floors down, the men had a room next door to the Cabinet room.”
Proud To Serve, which was written by Maria Hegarty and Martina Murray, is being launched by Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar next Tuesday evening.
A spokeswoman for the authors said: “This book lets women’s voices shine through first-hand accounts via interviews and excerpts from Dail and Seanad contributions.
“Topics covered range from personal to the political, including what inspired women to get involved in politics, their early influences, experience of getting involved in politics, the issues that were prevalent during their time in public life, their achievements and accomplishments and their perspectives about the future for women’s involvement in politics.”
I leapt to my feet and there he was with a half-smile on his face GEMMA HUSSEY IN NEW BOOK ON FINE GAEL
RELEASE
A YOUNG mum who turned her life around has told of how she would eat a packet of chocolate bars for breakfast before she won her battle of the bulge
Now Kildare native Teri Bracken, who says she used to hate and mock herself, is a new woman – thanks to Slimming World who helped her lose four stone and regain her badly dented self-esteem.
Teri, 37, told the Irish Mirror: “I was addicted to sugar. I’d drop the kids to school, I’d go to the shop and buy a multipack of bars.
“Then I’d eat them and burn the wrappers so there’d be no evidence I had eaten them.
“I’d feel so guilty afterwards, they’d be all gone by 1pm.
“I never ate breakfast, I had biscuits and anything sugary.
“I’d buy almond fingers too and munch on them throughout the day. The sweet treats came first and how I thought about myself came second.
“Looking back I hated myself, I despised how I looked, I was depressed.”
Teri was size 18 to 20 when she joined Slimming
World and now she’s a proud size 8.
And getting in shape has done wonders for her self-esteem.
She said: “I was big and unfit and unhealthy and Slimming World has completely changed that for me now. My husband started a running group and I didn’t feel good enough to be around him and his friends, I felt fat and ugly.
“I started running a week after I joined Slimming World and I still run today and I would have used every excuse to not exercise before.
“Now if I don’t run I feel guilty for not running.”
And Teri recalled how she tried to get on to the TV show Operation Transformation, which she now sees as a cry for help.
She explained: “My eating was so out of control, I even applied for RTE’S Operation Transformation.
“When they rang me I ended up not going for it, I couldn’t face cameras coming into the house.”