A Sinn Féin TD was headbutted by a repeat driving offender with whom the politician had remonstrated for doing "wheel spins" in a residential area, a court heard yesterday.
Aengus Ó Snodaigh managed to throw his attacker, Mark Moran (23), into a garden hedge in an effort to defend himself before gardaí arrived.
Moran, who has 32 previous convictions mostly for car-related crime, had been doing 360-degree handbrake turns near Mr Ó Snodaigh's home in Ballyfermot, Dublin. A tyre-fitter from Cremona Road, Ballyfermot, Moran was at the time under a five-year ban for a previous uninsured driving offence.
He denied assaulting Mr Ó Snodaigh but said his head may have unintentionally hit the TD's head during a scuffle between the two of them.
Dublin District Court heard Mr Ó Snodaigh had been returning from a Sinn Féin ardfheis on March 6th last year when he had to swerve to avoid two cars which were racing each other up his street.
Mr Ó Snodaigh said incidents like this and "joyriding" occurred regularly in the area, but it usually happened at night and not in daylight when there were children around, as was the case on this evening.
He tried to speak to the driver of one of the cars but it sped away. He rang gardaí about it.
A short time later, Mr Ó Snodaigh was buying ice-cream for his children from a van parked near his house when he saw a car driven by Mr Moran doing wheel spins in the street.
He tried to speak to Moran who told him "F**k off, you and your IRA mates, I'm not afraid of you." Mr Ó Snodaigh said Moran got out and headbutted him. He managed to grab Moran and throw him over a garden wall into a thorn bush.
At that point, Mr Ó Snodaigh's son said the gardaí were coming and Moran jumped back into his car and sped off. Gardaí followed the car and after stopping it, Moran gave his brother's name.
The ice-cream van driver told the court he saw Mr Ó Snodaigh being headbutted but did not see anything else because he was telling Moran's passenger to keep out of it.
Moran told the court he had had a couple of drinks earlier because it was Mother's Day. He claimed Mr Ó Snodaigh "was fairly intoxicated and using threatening and abusive behaviour". When they started scuffling, Mr Ó Snodaigh "gave me a few punches". He added: "I do admit at some point my head hit off his face but not intentionally."
Judge Ann Ryan found him guilty and said he must realise, as the father of a young child, the danger his driving was posing to children in the area.
She was prepared to give him a chance "to give something back to society" and remanded him on bail to January 26th to see if he was suitable for 240-hour community service.
The court heard Moran had been given a five-year driving ban and a three-month prison sentence a year earlier for uninsured driving. Last September, he was disqualified for 40 years for another no insurance offence.
Most of his 32 convictions were for similar driving offences.