Laois man pleads guilty to abusing funeral director in graveyard
Image for illustration purposes
THE Probation Act was applied at Portlaoise District Court to a man who had gathered €500 to be donated for the upkeep of a graveyard.
Patrick Tuohy (22), Dysart Beg, Mountrath had previously been before the court, where he pleaded guilty to engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour at the graveyard in Dysart Beg on 27 September 2025.
After hearing the facts in the case, Judge Susan Fay said she wanted €500 to be in court to go towards the group that maintains the graveyard in Dysart Beg and a community service assessment to be carried out on the defendant before remanding the accused to last week’s sitting of the court.
When the case resumed, solicitor Josephine Fitzpatrick said that the probation services had deemed her client not to be a suitable candidate to carry out a community service order.
Garda Sgt JJ Kiby said that Mr Tuohy had no previous convictions.
At the initial hearing of the case, the court was told that on 27 September last year when the local funeral director came across two men who had horses in the cemetery, one abused, roared and shouted at him.
Mr Tuohy pleaded guilty to engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour at the graveyard.
Sgt Kirby said that Seamus Burke from Burke Funeral Directors received a report at the time of horses in the nearby graveyard. When he went to investigate, he came upon two men, one being the accused. One of the horses was tied to a gravestone. When he went to speak with the men and to tell them to get the horses out of the holy place, Mr Tuohy took umbrage, took off his jacket and began roaring and shouting at him.
Sgt Kirby said: “There were other people in the graveyard at the time saying prayers.” Defending solicitor Josephine Fitzpatrick said that her client: “Lives quite close to the graveyard and his horses had strayed into it. When Mr Burke told him they shouldn’t be there, he got cross. Mr Tuohy accepts that Mr Burke was only trying to ensure that the graveyard was kept in a proper manner.”
Before applying the Probation Act, Judge Fay said: “This was a very distressing situation caused by Mr Tuohy. The compensation is to be passed on to the people who maintain the cemetery.”
