Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
TYRONE Gaelic football star Cathal McCarron has been spared a criminal record and a sentence after he had to be restrained when he got into a row with staff at a Temple Bar pub.
The 2008 All-Ireland winner, who hit the headlines over a gay porn video and his chronic gambling problems, had pleaded guilty to engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour at Anglesea Street in Dublin city-centre on 12 May last. The public order offence can result in a conviction, fine and a three-month sentence.
Dublin District Court had heard that an irate McCarron had to be restrained by security staff before he was put of the Auld Dubliner pub and he then became aggressive to gardaí who tried to calm him down.
Last week, Judge Michael Walsh held that McCarron would be spared a criminal record if he gave €500 to a homeless charity. The case resumed yesterday but the Dromore and Tyrone corner back was excused from having to attend.
Defence solicitor Peter Connolly furnished the court with a receipt showing his client had complied and had donated the money at which Judge Walsh said he was striking out the case.
Pub security
Earlier, Garda Sergeant Gail Smith told Judge Walsh that gardaí responded to a public order incident at the Auld Dublin pub where McCarron was being “restrained by security staff”. Gardaí separated him from the pub security to ask him what happened and be became aggressive to them.
Garda Sergeant Smith said the Gaelic games star was directed on numerous occasions to calm down but when he threw his top on the ground gardaí arrested him.
The court heard he had no prior criminal convictions and has not come to Garda attention since.
Advertisement
Defence solicitor Peter Connolly had handed in to court a letter from his client in which he apologised to gardaí. He said his client is now studying psychotherapy part-time while continuing to work as a business development officer in a successful firm.
The court heard the 28-year-old, from Tummery Road, Dromore, Omagh, who also has three Ulster title medals, has been nominated for the 2016 All-Star football awards.
Connolly said the footballer is very embarrassed and regrets the incident. He only drinks alcohol three or four times a year, the solicitor said. He said his client was out with a friend after they completed an exam, however bar staff refused them service.
McCarron began to remonstrate and was restrained with his hand behind his back and became “irate”, Connolly said.
The judge was asked to noted McCarron has had a number of well documented difficulties in his personal and professional life.
Pleading for leniency, Connolly described the Temple Bar incident as the “last speed bump in his situation” and he added that his client has received support from his family and the GAA.
He also asked the court to note that the footballer was recovering from a serious gambling addiction. The solicitor added that McCarron is in a relationship and his partner is expecting a child and he is focused on sport, work and his family.
Genuine remorse
Judge Walsh said he noted he pleaded guilty, his genuine remorse and that he was under certain emotional stress which may have been a factor. He said McCarron was a distinguished member of his team and he had watched him over the years playing in an exemplary manner for Tyrone. The judge also said the footballer would not be likely to re-offend.
The footballer, who helped his county win this year’s Ulster Championship, has released an autobiography titled Out of Control, which was co-written by journalist Christy O’Connor.
It tells the story of his football success but also delves into his other personal issues including his chronic gambling problems, his move to London and taking part in a hardcore gay porn video before returning home to Tyrone to play for his county again.
With all the uncertainty and clarity about travel, its up to us as people to ensure we have all the relevant paperwork and documents BEFORE traveling, when this story broke last weekend, some people were already in Malta before the restrictions on free travel were lifted. Stay Safe Ireland ☀️
@VinnoH: The latest travel advice for most countries is readily available online. It is completely the responsibility of those travelling to check it. Ignorance or misinformation is not an excuse
@VinnoH: ‘A Junior Minister Said’, after the last 16 months we have all had, with last minute changes, back tracking and U-turns, and leaky information from some ministers, I would take that advise with a pinch of salt, we need to take responsibility of our own actions, I have been bombarded with Emails from Aer Lingus since Christmas telling me to book and fly abroad, only I can’t, my decision is based on all the relevant information available.
@Luan Willis: The last time I was out of the country was in 2008, for me that’s recent. In my lifetime (I’m 70) I have been out of the country about 6 times.
Everyone knows that Malta is enforcing some of the strictest rules yet these people said ‘rules don;t apply to us’….hope they had to pay for their entire quarantine period.
@Linda Oreilly: why would you hope they have to pay for their entire quarantine period? You sound incredibly bitter. One of our elected representatives tweeted before they traveled that if the DCC did not arrive by then the vaccine card filled out would have been accepted. Given this person’s position their advise was taken. They now have their DCC and will presumably be released for quarantine. Why do you want them to pay the full amount? As a punishment for traveling fully vaccinated id it? You sound like a lovely person…
@Eoin Jackson: We have travelled to Malta lots of times and we always check out the restrictions from their gov. pages. We would never go by what an irish rep would tell us….always better to check the country you are travelling to….
@Linda Oreilly: you really have to be naive to trust irish civil servant advice.. They said that they weren’t able to predict the enormous amount of calls on their coved cert line, that they are overwhelmed with!!
Where I ask you, are their so called experts, with their university qualifications
… What does this have to say about their levels of competence?
@Linda Oreilly: oh no Linda, I 100% agree with you on that front, absolutely spot on! They were foolish, i can certainly agree with that. But at the end of the day, they did not cause much harm only to their own time and pocket. Like id be annoyed if they had forged vaccine passes or something, absolutely! They travelled fully vaccinated without the required paperwork, they were put in MHQ until paperwork was sorted and I would imagine then released. A good lesson for them but I don’t understand the abuse they are getting. Or why they should pay for 2 weeks MHQ if they were only there 2-3 days. Charge them the 2-3 days worth. Like everyone is young at some point and i would like to consider myself still young, learning and going to make mistakes. I wouldn’t like to be vilified for it and I don’t really think these people should be either. Is basically my point.
If you travel to Hungary without the digital cert.
All those entering Hungary (unless transiting) must agree to enter mandatory, legally enforceable 10-day quarantine. If the person has no place of residency in Hungary, they must enter a government designated place of quarantine.
The quarantined individual may request from the authorities’ permission to have two PCR tests conducted within 5 days of arrival, which must be taken 48 hours apart. If the two PCR tests are negative, the authorities can exempt the individual from their quarantine obligation. The cost of the PCR tests must be met by the individual.
So nice to hear our government has their priorities straight. Ffs. Couldn’t get my nephew into a school for 2.5 years, but at least the ignorami helped some fools who travelled knowing those cards would not be accepted or didn’t bother to check.
@Contrary Mary: Country is run by the whims of the media – whoevers story is more click bait worthy- gets into the headlines and gets their issues sorted pronto.
@Andrew English: Why would a minister HERE be the foo l you believed? Do you go to a minister HERE to get a visa to the US? No. You check through your destination’s government.
While Malta may be the outlier if it truly is the only part of the EU not accepting vaccination cards, refusing anything but the DCC still seems entirely reasonable.
That was the whole point of it: so there was one standardised format everyone could recognise that was difficult to forge.
I arrived in Athens today, no request for vaccine cert, no request for a person locator form (PLF) and yet barely allowed on the aerlingus flight because we had trouble producing our PLF. This is a virus you cannot control a virus, end this ridiculous carry on. By the way I do not appreciate the journals editorial control of commentary.
I’m still confused as to what they want, is a digital cert different than the paper cert that was emailed to me during the week even though they contain the same information. Can I go online and download it
Loneliness, heartbreak and exhaustion: Parents begin sleepout to demand special education places
Jane Matthews
3 hrs ago
3.5k
41
Oval Office
Zelenskyy leaves White House summit after Trump claims he's 'not ready for peace'
Updated
40 mins ago
37.6k
197
New Mexico
Police 'keeping everything on the table' in deaths of Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa
Updated
21 hrs ago
104k
78
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 153 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 105 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 137 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 106 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 79 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 78 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 38 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 34 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 127 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 60 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 75 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 82 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 39 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 43 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 25 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 87 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 97 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 69 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 51 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 85 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 65 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say