Man stole altar wine and broke into funeral home

A judge has jailed a man for six months for breaking into a funeral home and handling five bottles of altar wine stolen from the local church.

At Ennis District Court, Judge Patrick Durcan said he has “no regard for someone who breaks into a church, a temple, or a synagogue, or any place where people worship”.

Judge Durcan made his comment before imposing two consecutive three-month prison terms on John Brennan, aged 43, of Pella Rd, Kilrush, Co Clare, for breaking into Cusack’s funeral home in Kilrush on May 10 and handling five stolen bottles of altar wine at his home on February 27.

Judge Durcan said it was the first time he has come across anyone breaking into a funeral home.

Brennan committed the offences while serving the final suspended year of a four-year jail term for burglary.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said Fr Martin Blake discovered the missing bottles of altar wine from the Kilrush church sacristy on February 27.

Insp Kennedy said gardaí went to the home of Brennan where they discovered the altar wine in his front room with one bottle empty and another half empty.

Fiona Hehir, for Brennan, said that the background to the burglary at the funeral home was that Brennan was seeking to have a damaged headstone for his deceased brother replaced.

She said the father of two had got in touch with the local undertaker about getting a new headstone and entered the funeral home in a drunken state.

Judge Durcan backdated the prison terms to May 11.