{"id":414689,"date":"2026-04-24T05:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414689\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T05:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:35:11","slug":"man-31-appears-in-court-over-assault-of-priest-in-ennis-cathedral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414689\/","title":{"rendered":"Man (31) appears in court over assault of priest in Ennis Cathedral"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 31-year-old Co Clare man has appeared in court charged with the assault causing harm of a Catholic co-parish priest and \u2018man of faith\u2019 in a Cathedral in Ennis in front of churchgoers.<\/p>\n

Dylan O\u2019Loughlin has appeared in Ennis District Court charged with the assault causing harm of Fr Joy Micle at the St Peter and St Paul Cathedral, O’Connell Street, in Ennis on Monday of this week contrary to Section 3 of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Loughlin, from the Burren village of Corofin but currently of no fixed abode, is also charged with the criminal damage of \u20ac150 eye- glasses belonging to Fr Micle at the Cathedral on Monday, April 20th.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Loughlin – who turns 32 next month – is also charged with using or engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to provoke a breach of the peace at the Cathedral in Ennis on Monday.<\/p>\n

In court, Garda Thomas Murray said that during the alleged assault, O\u2019Loughlin scraped Fr Micle’s face and Fr Micle sustained injuries over his right temple and right cheek.<\/p>\n

Garda Murray said that during the alleged assault, Fr Micle\u2019s eye glasses fell and broke on the Church floor.<\/p>\n

Garda Murray said that \u201cother church goers came to the priest\u2019s assistance\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that O\u2019Loughlin was also allegedly verbally abusive towards Fr Micle.<\/p>\n

Garda Murray said the sentence for Section 3 assaults in the circuit court on conviction is prison terms up to 10 years, adding that\u00a0there may be further charges brought against O\u2019Loughlin.<\/p>\n

Objecting to bail for O\u2019Loughlin, Garda Murray said that he would not be satisfied at all if the accused was granted bail.<\/p>\n

Garda Murray said that garda\u00ed were objecting to bail as garda\u00ed have a fear that there will be interference with witnesses.<\/p>\n

He said that Fr Micle \u201cis a man of faith, a priest and always at the Cathedral and that makes it very easy for O\u2019Loughlin to approach him should he receive bail\u201d.<\/p>\n

Solicitor John Casey for O\u2019Loughlin applied for bail for his client and described O\u2019Loughlin as \u201ca very vulnerable individual\u201d who has good periods.<\/p>\n

Casey said Garda Murray had provided a graphic account of the assault in court.<\/p>\n

Casey said that O\u2019Loughlin suffers from paranoia. Casey said: \u201cI can see where the case is going and how it will be dealt with.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Dad<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Dad (62) missed daughter’s wedding after ‘bomb in luggage’ joke at Dublin Airport<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Casey said that previously O\u2019Loughlin worked in Shannon for a number of years and then had an accident unrelated to work and didn\u2019t go back to work.<\/p>\n

Judge Harris granted bail to O\u2019Loughlin on condition that he remain out of Ennis and also ordered him to obey a nightly curfew.<\/p>\n

Judge Harris told Loughlin \u201cI don\u2019t want you to come to Ennis\u201d apart from court appearances.<\/p>\n

Judge Harris also ordered that O\u2019Loughlin is not to have any contact with the alleged injured party or witness in the case and remanded him to bail to appear before Ennis District Court next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 31-year-old Co Clare man has appeared in court charged with the assault causing harm of a Catholic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-414689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414689","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=414689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}