2025 Year in Review: 9 Unusual Stories from the Kerry Courts

By Anna Zacharias, The Kerryman

Protests at storm-battered islands, chainsaw-defying farmers and, perhaps, the ultimate crime: alleged turf vandalism. Court in Kerry is like nowhere else. Who, after all, could forget the court story of Dingle’s whistling donkey of 2011?

There was no shortage of sombre and sobering cases in 2025. But often, the small stories tell us the most about our patch of home. At court, we see people at their worst and, sometimes, their best. Over the course of the year, we have brought you hundreds of stories from Kerry’s six courthouses, from a thronged sitting on the Iveragh Peninsula to court overlooking the cow-dotted fields surrounding Listowel.

Here are nine of the Kingdom’s most unusual courtroom dramas from 2025:

The 32km south Kerry greenway follows the old Great Southern and Western Rail line over hill, bog and farmland. The first three kilometres opened this month, 11 years after its announcement and a substantial share of objections that ranged farmers’ objections to calls for the preservation of a rare Kerry slug and the Saint Patrick’s cabbage. One south Kerry farmer made headlines this year for “persistently obstructing works”. The court heard that James Clifford of Killurley, Cahersiveen stood before a track machine and before a worker “wielding a chainsaw” in September. Mr Clifford was ordered to stay away from the greenway.

Crime isn’t easy in a small town. In January, Listowel District Court heard the story of an off-duty garda who spotted a man he knew driving a Honda Civic while disqualified. The court was told the garda was on his way to work when he saw the man in clear view. John Healy of 11 Glenach, Sandhill Road, Ballybunion was one year into a six-year driving ban and charged with driving without a licence and for driving without insurance. He pleaded guilty. His solicitor, Padraig O’Connell noted the evidence by an “eagle-eyed, off-duty garda”.

Protestors took the open seas after a High Court challenge over landing rights stopped boat trips to Skellig Michael, a popular Unesco heritage site and one of Kerry’s most important tourist destinations. The beehive-shaped huts on the dramatic monastic island served as the setting for a remote Jedi sanctuary in two Star Wars movies and summer tours to the island provide an economic buoy for local tourism. A challenge to the allocation process by unsuccessful bidders triggered an automatic suspension of landing rights for all operators. In early June, Justice Garrett Simons granted an application by the Office of Public Works to lift the suspension, allowing boat landings to begin for the summer season.

In April, a man received a two-year driving ban for offences including driving a defective car which was described as being in such a bad condition that it could hardly even be called a car. "It was like Noddy’s car,” said his solicitor, Mr O’Connell referring to the yellow car of the cartoon character that was in perpetual need of repairs. Charges against Michal Siwiec of Cahernane Meadows, Killarney also included drug driving, driving without insurance and driving without a licence. The car was seized and inspected. Gardaí found serious defects in the vehicle.

A longstanding tradition of the Puck Fair was upheld in July, when Judge Terence O’Sullivan, at the Killarney Circuit Court, ruled taps could flow until 3am during the festival. It overturned a July ruling at the Killorglin District Court, where Judge David Waters had refused an exemption in place since the 1970s. Prior to that, the pubs stayed open without restrictions. The festival, which dates to at least 1613, is famed for a wild goat that is crowned and raised above the town’s revellers. In the appeal to Killarney Circuit Court, Barrister Katie O’Connell said Puck is “bigger than Christmas”, that changing opening hours would “erode the status of the festival” and later openings allowed crowds to disperse in an orderly fashion.

In October, a lawyer told the court his client had carried a knife for ‘cutting bread’ and an improvised blade to clean coins. Kristian Pablaks, then 32 and of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to possession of knives and a pointed blade. Solicitor Pat Mann told the court, “He was just using it, for example, for cutting bread and so on.” Mr Mann described the improvised blade as “a six-inch nail”.

The judge noted it was referred to as “a shank”.

“He was using it for peeling coins,” said the solicitor, who further noted his client was “most affable”.

In November, a Glanageenty man charged with damaging approximately €2,000 newly cut turf in 2023 told a small-town court he would rather go to jail than avail of bail. James Brian O’Connor of Glanageenty, Ballymacelligott, was the first case of the day at the November sitting of the one-room Cahersiveen courthouse. And so, Mr O’Connor (62) had time to reconsider. The court that Mr O’Connor believed the bog was his own and did not, in fact, belong to Margaret Carmody. Mr O’Connor sat on the hard bench that serves as the Cahersiveen dock for nearly two hours, alongside gardaí, as the day’s cases were heard. The courtroom began to empty. Mr O’Connor changed his mind and signed the bond. His case was adjourned.

Drowning in Ventry Bay? Dead at a Dingle pub? Twice in one day? Reports of a garda’s death were greatly exaggerated. A man appeared at Tralee District Court in late November for false reports to emergency services claiming Garda John Clancy, of the Dingle gardaí, was in mortal peril. Michael Boyle (45), with an address listed as Mount Eagle Lodge, Cloghane, Ventry was charged over making three 999 calls on August 12 reporting Gda Clancy “was dead or dying in various locations”, the court heard. It is alleged he first reported that the garda lay dead after a disagreement with him at Paul Geaney's Pub in Dingle. Later that day, he allegedly phoned to say Gda Clancy was dead at Paddy Bawn Brosnan’s Pub in Dingle. An alleged third call claimed the garda was drowning in Ventry Bay. Mr Boyle was also charged for harassing the garda from August 12 to October 15. The case was adjourned.

Sheep farmers, a Ukrainian grandmother, gentlemen in their best tweed jackets and young mothers in leisurewear thronged the one-room Cahersiveen courthouse in September as a sizeable portion of the small south Kerry town was summoned to explain a lack of TV licences.

So cramped was the rural courthouse that the crowd spilled onto the street as defendants squeezed onto courtroom benches and stood shoulder-to-shoulder down the aisles. Once it became apparent most were present for unlicensed TV sets, the mood settled from anxiety to camaraderie.

The TV licence inspector remained in the witness box while the judge heard 37 cases. Based on the national average of 2.5 people per household, this would represent about seven per cent of the town’s population. The state collected more than €4,500 in fines for unpaid fees.