Street drinker asked to move on from Cork church called garda 'dirty Dub', court told

The garda had earlier asked 10 men to move on when he caught them drinking on the church steps one lunchtime.

Garda Alan Hurson said gardaí at Watercourse Road garda station had received numerous complaints about people drinking outside the Church of the Annunciation in Blackpool. File photo: Richard Mills.

A member of An Garda Síochána trying to clear lunchtime street drinkers from the steps outside a Cork church was verbally abused as “a dirty Dub” by one of the men.

Garda Alan Hurson said gardaí at Watercourse Road garda station had received numerous complaints about people drinking outside the Church of the Annunciation in Blackpool.

A bench warrant was issued for the arrest of 37-year-old Gavin Miller of Peacock Row, North Monastery Road, Cork, for being threatening and abusive and being drunk and a danger to himself or others.

As part of his role in community policing in the area, Garda Hurson went to the area before lunchtime on Monday, December 7, 2020, and encountered 10 men drinking outside the church.

Garda Hurson asked them to move on and not to drink in public and gave them time to leave. He said he would come back in 20 minutes. When he returned a few of them were still there, including Gavin Miller.

Miller called the guard “a dirty Dub” and added: “You are just a f***ing eejit.” Members of the public were present at the time. 

Friends of Gavin Miller tried to get him to leave but he would not go and had to be arrested.

The accused failed to show up in Cork District Court yesterday and was convicted in his absence after Judge Olann Kelleher heard the evidence. “I convict. Garda Hurson gave him every opportunity,” the judge said.

Sergeant Pat Lyons said the accused had eight previous convictions for being drunk and a danger and seven for engaging in threatening behaviour.