Traveller is jailed for staying on site

A TRAVELLER who refused to move his family from an Unauthorised halting site in Galway has been sentenced to one month in prison…

A TRAVELLER who refused to move his family from an Unauthorised halting site in Galway has been sentenced to one month in prison and fined £500 for "blatantly being in breach of the law".

Edward McDonagh, of Hillside, has lodged an appeal against Judge Thomas Fitzpatrick's ruling. Galway Corporation took him to court for his refusal to leave a temporary bay at Hillside on February 22nd on the basis that allowing him and his family to stay would be in breach of a High Court condition. The case had been adjourned to allow him to move to a hardstand site at Carrowbrowne beside Galway dump.

McDonagh said he had lived in Carrowbrowne and had witnessed the corporation spraying the inside of the caravans with insecticide and killing vermin there.

"I know that it is a health hazard. There is no electricity there. All the other facilities are broken. I moved on to an empty bay at Hillside which has all the facilities. It had been empty for the past 11 months.

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"I have five children, the youngest is only seven weeks and my other children are all doing very well in the Holy Family School in Renmore," he said.

Judge Fitzpatrick said McDonagh was blatantly in breach of the law and the High Court. He gave him 28 days to pay the £500 fine, plus costs of £100, and jailed him for one month.