Councillor bound to peace for insulting fellow FG activist

A NEWLY ELECTED Fine Gael councillor has been bound to the peace for 12 months for calling a fellow party member “a f****** scab”.

Thomas Bambrick, who was elected to Bagenalstown Town Council in Co Carlow in May, appeared at a recent sitting of the District Court charged with an offence under the Public Order Act. Bambrick admitted to publicly insulting Larry Byrne, also a local Fine Gael activist, on the street.

On various occasions, the court heard, Bambrick, a retired postman, had insulted Mr Byrne by calling him “a f****** scab”, “a scabby bastard”, “a traitor” and “a Judas”.

Bambrick admitted the allegation and told Judge William Harnett: ‘Oh God in Hell, I don’t deny that. I called him a f****** scab three times.”

Judge Harnett was told that the two men, both in their 60s, had frequently clashed in public. Bambrick’s solicitor John Foley agreed that there had been a history of “political jousting”.

Mr Byrne admitted that one time, he couldn’t quite understand the insults because Bambrick had “a pipe in his mouth”.

In his evidence, Bambrick claimed that he, in turn, had also been the victim of unpleasant jibes made by Mr Byrne.

The court heard that Mr Byrne had once ordered his dog not to approach Bambrick when the two men had crossed paths. According to Bambrick, Mr Byrne had instructed his dog to “come away from that or you’ll be contaminated”. In his defence, Mr Byrne claimed that, far from insulting Bambrick, he was warning his dog to stay away from “poo in the grass”.

Judge Harnett appeared to set a legal precedent when he ruled that a person cannot insult another person by communicating via an animal. He said Mr Byrne’s comment could not be construed as an insult because he was talking to his dog. The judge observed that he was sure it was “a Fine Gael dog” and Garda Supt Pat Kavanagh agreed that it would not be necessary to call the hound as a witness.

Bambrick was bound to the peace for one year on his own bond of €300.