Fighting in the street with brother-in-law

A 21-year-old man who was fighting in Sligo’s main street a month after receiving a suspended sentence was given a two month jail term by Judge Kevin Kilrane.

“You were sentenced in January 2018 in Mayo and a month later you are at it again,” the Judge told Paul Darcy (23) of 8 Calry Court, Stephen Street, Sligo.

He had admitted engaging in threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour on February 19 th last at O’Connell Street.

Inspector Donal Sweeney outlined how Gardaí received a report of two men fighting in the street at 5.20pm. On arrival they stopped the fight and they also secured mobile phone footage of the incident. Pedestrians and traffic were disrupted.

The defendant had a number of previous convictions including assault and threatening to kill.

Mr Gerard McGovern, solicitor (defending) said Darcy lived with his partner and their 16 month old child.

On the day he had been with his brother-in-law who had got aggressive with him. There were no ongoing difficulties and the defendant’s brother-in-law did not make a statement.

Judge Kilrane noted that in January Darcy got a significant suspended sentence and had entered a bond to be of good behaviour .

The Judge said it had been a very serious row in the street and the defendant had been given several chances.

Darcy told the court the matter arose from a family law matter. “I didn’t want it to happen, it just happened. There was no excuse over why it happened,” he said.

Judge Kilrane jailed Darcy for two months. He said he didn’t impose a jail term it would make a nonsense of the suspended prison sentence. Recognisnances were fixed in the event of an appeal.