Love Ulster rioter jailed

A man who had been given a suspended sentence after he attempted to block a fire engine during the 2006 "Love Ulster" riots has now been jailed after he committed seven new offences.

Shane Day (aged 21) of St Columbanis Place, Milltown, was given a four-year suspended sentence from Judge Thomas Teehan in July 2007 after he heard that the defendant had thrown rocks and glass bottles at riot police and tied a rope around a fence in an attempt to stop a fire engine getting through.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to endangering traffic on Dundrum Road on February 25, 2006 and to criminal damage of a car and obstructing a police officer during the course of her duties at O'Connell Street later that day.

Judge Teehan had suspended the sentence on condition that Day keep the peace and be of good behaviour for four years.

Sergeant Rhona Barker told Mr Patrick McGrath BL, prosecuting, that from August to November 2008, Day was convicted of six public order offences, criminal damage and two charges of possession of a knife and a Stanley knife.

She said he had also failed to failed to sign on in the garda station on two occasions and had just been arrested for a public order offence last Sunday night.

Judge Teehan said it was made "abundantly clear" to Day that any transgression from the bond he entered into on July 2007 would result in him going to prison.

"He has re-offended on multiple occasions and that cannot be ignored. I have a responsibility to society and he most certainly did not take the opportunity that had been given to him," Judge Teehan said before he reactivated the four-year sentence.