A Jamaican woman damaged the public housing office at Galway City Council, claiming the authority was racist and had treated her unfairly because of her skin colour, Galway District Court heard this week.
Ms Simone Jackson, with an address at Corrib House, Willow Park, Galway, pleaded guilty to causing €100 worth of criminal damage; to breaching the peace; and to a technical assault on a clerical officer during the incident, which occurred last month at the City Hall, College Road, Galway.
Garda Patricia Grady gave evidence that Ms Jackson came to the City Hall looking for accommodation for herself and her child on August 16th and was told she was ineligible.
She left the building, but returned moments later through a side door carrying a wooden plank she had found on a nearby building site. She returned to the housing section and hit the public counter and glass partition with the plank.
A clerical officer, Mr Jarleth Byrne, who was working behind the glass partition, told gardaí he believed the glass would have shattered from the force of the blows had it not been reinforced.
Ms Jackson broke a bell on the public counter and called Mr Byrne a racist b*****d. She said the council had treated her unfairly because of her colour.
The defence solicitor, Ms Valerie Corcoran, said her client had come to Ireland with her African boyfriend. However, they were no longer together, and she had been left to bring up their four-year-old child.
Ms Jackson had sat her Leaving Certificate and, because of the pressure she was under, had had to send her child back to her family in Jamaica. Consequently, her rental allowance was reduced, and she could not afford her accommodation. The Department of Social Welfare refused to pay her rent, and she was evicted.
Following her exams Ms Jackson went to Galway City Council looking for accommodation so that she could bring her child back to Ireland, said Ms Corcoran.
Judge Mary Fahy said Ms Jackson had chosen to come to Ireland, and the council was not responsible for housing her. The judge convicted her of assault and imposed a four-month sentence, suspended for two years on condition she not reoffend.
Two concurrent two-month suspended sentences were also imposed for causing criminal damage and for breaching the peace.