Offaly man jailed for two months is at risk of longer sentence

A TWO-month prison sentence was imposed on a man who is at risk of being sent to jail for an additional eight months.

Tullamore District Court was told that Patrick McDonagh (36), Meadowlands, Kilcormac, had breached the terms of previous suspended sentences by being convicted of drugs possession at his address on January 15 last.

Mr McDonagh had been under the supervision of the probation service following that conviction, which was for €20 worth of drugs, and had last been in court on October 6.

Last week his solicitor, Patrick Martin, told Judge Andrew Cody that Mr McDonagh was suffering from a trapped nerve in his back and had missed two appointments with the probation service but remained willing to engage.

Judge Cody said the accused had “never engaged” with the probation service despite being involved with it in 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2025.

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He said Mr McDonagh had 37 previous convictions, including six under the Misuse of Drugs Act and a bench warrant had to be issued for him so he could be sentenced.

Sergeant Brendan Kearns said the man had turned up in court later in the day of that warrant but added that there were four outstanding matters related to other suspended sentences.

Mr Martin said his client had not used drugs since last year and he had attended with the probation service, along with leaving messages on the phone for them.

The solicitor repeated that Mr McDonagh would engage with the service if he was given another chance.

Judge Cody sentenced the man to two months in prison and having been told that he was also subject to four separate suspended sentences, two for three months and two more for one month each, he remanded him to appear in court again on January 21.

The judge also fixed recognisances which can be taken up if Mr McDonagh wishes to lodge an appeal against the two-month sentence.

In March 2023 Patrick McDonagh received two one-month suspended sentences for his part in what Judge Cody called a “terrifying” melee in a Kilcormac pub.

Nearly a year earlier, on St Patrick's Day, 2022, a row broke out in Gracelands, Main Street, Kilcormac involving six men and violence was recorded on CCTV.

Following pleas of guilty by Mr McDonagh and others to a variety of offences, the court heard that when the man got involved in a fight with another man a woman had to separate them.

The court was also told that Patrick McDonagh went to a pool table, got two pool balls and returned to fight with the balls in his hand.

Mr Martin said his client, a father of four at the time who was also caring for two other children, had tried to break up a fight.

Judge Cody found that while Mr McDonagh was involved to a lesser extent than some of the other participants, he “should have stepped back and not got involved”.