John Temple (44), Rathcor, Riverstown, Dundalk, pleaded guilty to an offence under Section 6 of the Public Order Act, using or engaging in threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour in a public place, at the Carrick Road venue on October 18, 2024.<\/p>\n
The district court heard that an incident occurred after a 2-0 loss to Derry City in the League of Ireland Premier Division, a result which confirmed Dundalk\u2019s relegation to the First Division.<\/p>\n
Four other people summonsed had their cases adjourned, while an intended prosecution against a sixth person was withdrawn.<\/p>\n
When the case was called Mr Temple, a barrister by occupation, said he was trying to finalise the matter that day if he could.<\/p>\n
Judge Stephanie Coggans asked, \u201cIs there any problem with me dealing with this?\u201d<\/p>\n
Court presenter Sgt Richie Browne replied that there was \u201cno issue with the State\u201d.<\/p>\n
The sergeant went on to give evidence that at 10.10pm on October 18 last at Oriel Park Football Club following a game between Dundalk and Derry City a public disturbance broke out \u201cinvolving multiple individuals involved with Dundalk FC.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a verbal altercation between the defendant and other named people. This escalated and a \u201cheated exchange\u201d ensued. There were \u201cverbal insults\u201d by the defendant and towards one woman in particular.<\/p>\n
All parties were separated.<\/p>\n
Sgt Browne continued that Mr Temple, who has no previous convictions, was victim of an alleged assault.<\/p>\n
At the conclusion of the prosecution evidence, John Temple, who represented himself, said that he wanted to address the court.<\/p>\n
Judge Coggans asked was he sure, adding that there was \u201cnothing previous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Temple did not speak.<\/p>\n
The case was adjourned until January 14, 2026, for a \u20ac500 donation to North Louth Hospice Association; a conviction and \u20ac500 fine with three months to pay in default.<\/p>\n
The defendant was excused from attending if the money was handed over in advance.<\/p>\n
Mr Temple said that there would be no default.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, four other accused have had their cases put back to October 15 for a plea of guilty or date for hearing.<\/p>\n
Former joint-owner of the club Andrew Connolly Snr (60) was summonsed for Section 6 Public Order; Andrew Connolly Jnr (25), for two counts of assault and one of Section 6 Public Order; and Ava Connolly (20), for Section 6 Public Order; all with addresses at Tankardsrock, Kilkerley, Dundalk.<\/p>\n
Jason McConville (36), Ath Lethan, Racecourse Road, Dundalk, is accused of assault and Section 6 Public Order.<\/p>\n
In each case Judge Coggans made a disclosure order including for CCTV.<\/p>\n
The four defendants were represented by solicitor Frank McDonnell.<\/p>\n
Martin Connolly (56), former Dundalk FC Chief Operations Officer, of Mill Road, Dundalk, had a Section 6 Public Order summons withdrawn on foot of DPP directions.<\/p>\n
Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Temple (44), Rathcor, Riverstown, Dundalk, pleaded guilty to an offence under Section 6 of the Public Order…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13691,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-14201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-francis-carroll","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}