{"id":175602,"date":"2025-12-04T23:40:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T23:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/175602\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T23:40:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T23:40:08","slug":"clare-man-was-found-completely-out-of-his-mind-and-naked-high-on-magic-mushrooms-court-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/175602\/","title":{"rendered":"Clare man was found ‘completely out of his mind’ and naked high on magic mushrooms, court hears"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 45-year old Co Clare man was found by garda\u00ed<\/a> \u201ccompletely out of his mind\u201d and \u201cbutt-naked\u201d on a hotel balcony after taking too many micro-doses of magic mushrooms for therapeutic reasons, a court has heard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Killaloe District Court sitting in Ennis, Jonathan O\u2019Donoghue of The Old House, Knockroe, Meelick, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Garda Donal Coughlan and resisting arrest by Garda Conor Horan at the Killaloe Hotel and Spa on December 21 last year.<\/p>\n

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Sergeant Frank O\u2019Grady said that Mr O\u2019Donoghue assaulted Garda Coughlan during the course of his late night arrest at the hotel.<\/p>\n

He said that staff had contacted garda\u00ed who found Mr O\u2019Donoghue naked on a balcony of his hotel room where he said that he had consumed magic mushrooms.<\/p>\n

Sergeant O\u2019Grady said that Garda Coughlan suffered only minor injuries in the assault.<\/p>\n

Judge Alec Gabbett said that assaulting a garda is a serious offence and imposed 120 hours of community service on Mr O’Donoghue.<\/p>\n

Judge Gabbett said that Mr O\u2019Donoghue\u2019s intoxication from the magic mushrooms \u201cbecame so intense that it became a disability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solicitor Daragh Hassett for Mr O\u2019Donoghue said that the night could have ended in tragedy but for the intervention of the garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n

He said that Mr O\u2019Donoghue had taken the micro-doses of magic mushrooms for their therapeutic value to deal anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n

He said that Mr O\u2019Donoghue had attended a lecture on Limerick\u2019s Dock Road on the therapeutic value of the active ingredient psilocybin found in magic mushrooms where he was told that it can reverse depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n

Mr Hassett said following the lecture, Mr O\u2019Donoghue went to pick magic mushrooms.<\/p>\n

Mr Hassett said that Mr O\u2019Donoghue works in Limerick and has a long-term difficulty with addiction to alcohol and drugs and has been off alcohol and drugs for some time.<\/p>\n

Mr Hassett said that on the night of December 21 last, Mr O\u2019Donoghue and his partner went away for a night to the Killaloe Hotel and Spa to avoid a Christmas party.<\/p>\n

Judge Gabbett remarked \u201cthey had their own Christmas party\u201d and Mr Hassett said in reply \u201cno\u201d, that this wasn\u2019t the case as Mr O\u2019Donoghue\u2019s partner doesn\u2019t drink.<\/p>\n

He said that on returning to their hotel room after a meal Mr O’Donoghue started imbibing the micro-doses of magic mushrooms in tea.<\/p>\n

Mr Hassett said that unfortunately Mr O\u2019Donoghue \u201cover-consumed\u201d and he ended up out of the balcony roaring and shouting \u201ccompletely out of his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that staff called garda\u00ed and they found Mr O\u2019Donoghue \u201cbutt-naked unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Hassett said that the actual effect of what Mr O\u2019Donoghue took has worked \u201cand he hasn\u2019t taken any medication since and is off all prescribed medication for anxiety and depression and he has never felt better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The solicitor said: \u201cOut of this terrible incident he has reversed depression. He is still at work and is doing very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Hassett said that Mr O\u2019Donoghue is grateful for garda\u00ed arresting him and has written a letter of apology for garda\u00ed and hotel staff.<\/p>\n

The solicitor added that Mr O\u2019Donoghue has no previous convictions for assault and \u201che would never purposely strike a member of the force – he would never take a guard on – he was completely out of his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 45-year old Co Clare man was found by garda\u00ed \u201ccompletely out of his mind\u201d and \u201cbutt-naked\u201d on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15469,26809,61,60,32691,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-175602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-clare","9":"tag-ennis","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-killaloe","13":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175602","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=175602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}