Mary Fahy, the district court judge who could hear case

NOEL GREALISH, Donie Cassidy and the two others charged over the Oireachtas Golf Society dinner will likely have to appear in the nearest court to the Station House Hotel, Clifden District Court.

And the judge they are likely to appear before is Mary Fahy.

Judge Fahy is well known for her work in the Galway Court Circuit, and while she has heard many serious assault and sexual offences cases, she is also known for her sharp wit.

Last month she sentenced a man to three months in prison for pinching a woman’s bottom.

Galway District Court was told Francis Ward, 19, of no fixed abode, apologised after the incident. His barrister said Ward had no memory of it and was ‘shocked and upset’ when told what he’d done.

‘He needs to keep his hands to himself,’ said Judge Fahy, pictured, who imposed the maximum sentence for a Section 6 Public Order offence.

In 2019, she convicted the then-Mr Ireland of assaulting a taxi driver and not paying his fare and fined him €1,000. Wayne Walsh, 28, from Caherbrian, Gort, grabbed the driver by the neck while he was driving after they had left the Garda station where the driver had complained Walsh had not paid his fare. He then kicked and punched the driver after dragging him out of the car. ‘If he [Walsh] didn’t want to pay his fare, he shouldn’t have got the taxi,’ she said.

Earlier, in 2019, she jailed two men who were found soaking wet and covered in muck with a load of burglary tools in their van in the middle of the night – they had claimed they were out having affairs with married women.

Jailing the men – who had almost

200 previous convictions between them – the judge said it was clear they had made up a ‘cock and bull’ story and were not out that night for ‘romancing or dancing’.

Galway District Court heard how gardaí responded to a call from a homeowner that an SUV with two occupants was acting suspiciously. They carried out a search and stopped two Cork men in a two-seater SUV.

Gardaí found a crowbar, two bolt cutters, Stanley knives, gloves, screwdrivers and several torches. When told the accused’s alibi for being in Galway, the judge quipped: ‘It would have been very uncomfortable for her with all those tools lying around.’