DERRY NATIVE Judge Mary Devins was appointed to the District Court in October 1998 and was transferred from the Dublin Metropolitan District to Mayo the following year.
She had previously practised as a solicitor in Sligo, where she still lives. She is married to medical doctor and former Fianna Fáil TD Jimmy Devins, who served in Brian Cowen’s government as a minister of state.
A large and varied caseload comes before Judge Devins at Mayo District Court.
Regulars at court sittings recall that she has been very severe with anyone whose mobile phone would ring in court and has reprimanded gardaí about any lack of formality in their attire or presentation of evidence in court.
Judge Devins is known for her often forthright comments during her cases, as the following examples show.
July 2012
A Ballinrobe man who threw large amounts of rubbish, including soiled nappies, into the garden of his home was given two weeks to get it cleaned up or else face jail. The court heard that the couple were in receipt of €430 in social welfare, €68 rent allowance and children’s allowance and winter fuel allowance.
Judge Devins said she did not know how a newborn baby could be brought home to such a dwelling and said if the HSE called they might take the children away.
“You are doing nothing else all day,” she said.
“The Government is giving you money hand over fist. Why don’t you get up and do some work? I wouldn’t allow a child of mine next nor near to that. You are bringing a newborn child home to that filth and dirt.”
At a later sitting Judge Devins was told that none of the rubbish had been removed. She sentenced the man to three months in jail to run consecutively with a six- month sentence and a €300 fine.
July 2012
Judge Devins criticised slow drivers at a careless driving hearing. She made the comments in a case where a man was charged with overtaking three cars on the N5 at Bohola.
Judge Devins said she travelled that road regularly and could not understand how some cars drive at only 40 miles per hour when it was “the best road in the county”. The case was dismissed.
June 2012
Judge Devins criticised delays in prosecuting in district courts. “I see no need for these delays in small county towns and to me the system is just not working,” she said.
May 2012
A man appeared before Castlebar District Court on two public order charges last May. He recounted what he drank at a Mike Denver concert on the night of the offence – 15 pints and 15 vodkas.
“You sound like you are preparing a dissertation on alcohol abuse and it sounds like you are mildly proud of it,” Judge Devins said.
April 2012
A former soldier and debt collector was convicted of assaulting a man whose van he was sent to repossess.
The man missed three payments and the bank decided it was time to send someone to repossess it. ACC bank had financed the van on hire purchase.
However, the man who carried out the repossession had no right to be there. Judge Devins criticised the bank’s paperwork and said: “The repossession orders are, quite frankly, nonsense. They don’t make sense in English, not to mind law.”
November 2011
A motorist caught using a mobile phone for a fourth time while driving was fined €500 and banned from driving for two years at Castlebar District Court. When told it was the accused’s fourth offence, Judge Devins said “The phone must be glued to his ear.”
February 2011
A guest broke a door window to gain access to his €30 BB after a night drinking and dancing in Bundoran, Co Donegal.
Judge Devins said she believed there was “over-reaction” by the guest and the BB landlady. Judge Devins said it was not a case for a criminal prosecution and she accepted payment to the landlady of €300 for damage and recorded no conviction.
April 2009
In 2009 Judge Devins vacated the bench twice amid unruly courtroom scenes which broke out as she dealt with cases involving activists who want the Corrib gas terminal located offshore.
One protester questioned the judge’s impartiality claiming she had demonstrated ill-will towards him and “shown favour to my opponents”. Judge Devins said her impartiality in Shell to Sea cases was obvious to any interested observer and described the accusations as “scurrilous”. “vicious”, “personal” and “unwarranted”.
February 2009
At Castlebar District Court, Judge Devins banned a farmer from driving for one year, after she criticised his “arrogance” and “individualism” for failing to pull over for traffic on his return from Balla mart, when he was travelling at 15 miles per hour.
She found that he had failed to pull over even though there were six places along the road in which he could have done so.