‘It is bringing justice to the local population’: A daytrip to the Aran Islands with a District Court judge

Court sittings do not normally involve a ferry journey to an offshore island before administering justice in a community centre, but District Court judge Mary Fahy embarks on that odyssey to Inis Mór three times a year.

Her third trip of 2023 was made on an unseasonably sweltering day on Thursday. The judge had to deal with a list including offences such as alleged assault, harassment and breaches of public order, waste management, planning and traffic codes.

The ferry was packed with tourists checking the Aran Islands off their list of Irish must-sees. A lucky few got a fleeting glimpse of dolphins gambolling in an unusually calm Atlantic Ocean.

Trips to the Aran Islands often require heavy-duty rain gear, warm jumpers and a strong stomach as the boat lurches in choppy seas, but the standard look on Thursday was T-shirts, shorts and sunglasses as the ferry coasted along.

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‘It is bringing justice to the local population’: A daytrip to the Aran Islands with a District Court judge

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Inis Mór, the largest of the islands, with a permanent population of around 800 swelling to about 3,000 during the summer months, is the only one of the three to have a Garda station, which is staffed by a sergeant and two gardaí.

If people do misbehave, they are coming before their neighbours and people they know, it is a possible deterrent because they know the court is there and the court will sit

—  Judge Mary Fahy

Ireland’s second Garda commissioner, Eoin O’Duffy, visited the island in 1926 and his is the first signature in the station’s visitors book, explains Garda Aidan Coughlan, who is stationed on Inis Mór.

O’Duffy later led a force from the Army Comrades Association, known as the Blueshirts, to fight with General Francisco Franco’s fascist side in the Spanish Civil War. Inis Mór-born novelist Liam O’Flaherty, a founder of the Communist Party of Ireland and dedicated anti-fascist, would not have approved.

[ Without the Blueshirts there would have been no Fine Gael ]

The District Court area includes the two smaller Aran Islands, Inis Meáin and Inis Oírr, and the cases before Judge Fahy involve alleged offences from all three islands.

‘Very important’

During the 45-minute ferry journey, Judge Fahy says she has conducted court hearings in Cill Rónáin on Inis Mór since being appointed to the Galway District Court area in 2004. Some sittings are affected by inclement weather and insufficient case numbers, but any emergencies can be dealt with in the Galway District Court area, including in another Gaeltacht area, she said.

“I think these hearings offshore are very important; it is bringing justice to the local population,” she says.

Inis Mór is accessible by air but the ferry is the preferred option for the judge, her registrar Roisín Uí Neachtain, and the lawyers and gardaí involved in the cases.

The court deals with a range of matters, including public order incidents. Many involve young people coming to the island for a weekend

Having a court hearing close to home may act as a deterrent against offending, Judge Fahy believes.

“If people do misbehave, they are coming before their neighbours and people they know, it is a possible deterrent because they know the court is there and the court will sit,” she says.

People living on islands can feel that others nowadays have more infrastructure, she adds.

“I think it’s important they don’t feel cut off, that they feel they have a local court. The District Court is a court of local jurisdiction and should be, people should not have to travel long distances to appear in the District Court,” she says.

Cill Rónáin is in the Gaeltacht and it is important, if people wish to have their cases heard through Irish, that they are facilitated, she adds.

Some days, most people want their cases heard through Irish but on other days, most opt for English, she says.

‘Cases heard through Irish’

“I have a particular love for the Irish language. I was born in the Gaeltacht in Donegal, and I have great interest in it, I know a lot of others have as well. I think it’s an opportunity for the local people to have their cases heard through Irish if they so wish,” she says.

The court deals with a range of matters, including public order incidents. Many involve young people coming to the island for a weekend; assaults; drunken driving; road traffic matters; and environmental issues regarding enforcement, where people are perhaps carrying out a business without planning permission. Most sittings conclude within a day.

Cases concerning parking at the busy island pier feature because there are related bylaws, the judge adds.

The community hall housing the court, dating back to 1966, is a short walk from the busy harbour area where horse-drawn vehicles, buses and people offering bicycles for rent hustle for business.

Having donned a black gown, the judge sits with her back to a large picture window through which the mirror-like ocean glitters almost white under the blazing sun and the green and grey contours of Inis Meáin are visible in the distance.

The scene outside partly evokes the tranquil west of Ireland works of artist Paul Henry, but a string of modern houses, the coming and going of the ferries in the harbour, and a constant stream of tourists walking and cycling on the road outside serve as reminders of modern times.

The first case involves a remorseful plea of guilty by a man with an address in Co Mayo to a public order offence in Cill Rónáin in August of last year.

Gardaí were called after the man, who was staying at a glamping site, was seen behaving strangely and was found to be “highly intoxicated and a danger to himself”, the judge hears.

‘Out of character’

Solicitor Michael Cunningham, for the accused, says his client was very shocked by his “out of character” behaviour and wished to apologise. The man was going through a difficult period, had had a very stable history of employment until very recently and had come to the island for a break.

He had previously received residential treatment for alcohol issues and is currently engaging with Alcoholics Anonymous, the solicitor says.

The man expresses remorse, saying “things got bad” after his divorce. He bought a tent and came alone to the island. “I don’t know why; I haven’t camped in 20 years,” he says.

[ Lorry driver who ‘dozed off’ and missed Donegal home by inches put off road for two years ]

Applying the Probation Act, the judge tells him his arrest perhaps did him a favour, in that it led to him addressing his issues.

She is less sympathetic to a mechanic subject of a prosecution by Galway County Council over an alleged failure to clear, in line with earlier court orders, vehicles from a site on the island.

A solicitor for the council explains that the man’s business has the potential to cause pollution in environmentally sensitive areas of the island and he was moving vehicles around the island “like on a chessboard”. The view of broken-down cars is not what visitors want to see, the solicitor adds.

Mr Cunningham, the man’s solicitor, says his client is not playing “a cat-and-mouse game” and has moved some vehicles to the pier for transport to the mainland. In evidence, the man agrees to an undertaking that no other vehicles would be put on the lands in question and he would not be doing any more works.

“All my tools are in the truck being moved, that’s the end of me. I’ll just move on, what else can I do,” he says.

The warden claims the driver made a deliberate attempt to hit him with his bus, which the driver disputes

‘Ducks and drakes’

Judge Fahy says this case had been “going on and on”, the man had “lost all credibility” and was “playing what is commonly called ducks and drakes with the court”. She did not accept his evidence that he had abandoned all tools and thus his ability to earn a living.

Having refused to accept his undertaking to remove one remaining vehicle from the site, she made an order that he do so but gave him more time to pay fines previously imposed.

In another case, a man with an address on Inis Mór was sent forward for trial to Galway Circuit Criminal Court on a charge of assault causing harm to another man on the island on a date in June 2015. The man was arrested earlier on Thursday and told the arresting garda, in Irish, that he had nothing to say, the judge hears. He was remanded on bail on consent on conditions, including that he surrender his passport.

The judge sends forward for trial to October another case, briefly outlined in Irish by Sgt Tomás Concannon, involving a woman, with an address on Inis Meáin. She is charged with two counts of harassing another woman there on dates unknown between April 2019 to April 2021.

Separate proceedings against various individuals on Inis Oírr were adjourned, including a case by Galway County Council seeking demolition of a dwelling house allegedly built without permission.

Another case concerns a dispute between Martin Mannion, a community warden with Galway County Council, and a bus driver on Inis Mór over an incident at the harbour in May of last year. The warden claims the driver made a deliberate attempt to hit him with his bus, which the driver disputes. The warden denies suggestions by the defendant’s solicitor, Catherine Tolan, of harassment by him, as community warden, of this and other drivers.

Judge Fahy, having been told that the Director of Public Prosecutions had directed a fine for a lesser offence of driving the bus without reasonable consideration for other persons using the relevant place, adjourns the case, saying she wants to watch CCTV evidence. Ms Tolan says her client is not willing to pay the fine and wishes to defend the claims.

As September sittings are often quieter, the court concludes the list of some 20 matters before 3pm, leaving enough time for a late lunch for the judge and her registrar before the return ferry. Not just another day in court.