Street drinker apologises for calling Garda 'dirty Dub' outside Cork church

Gavin Miller said yesterday he was about to go on a rehabilitation programme at Tabor Lodge.

Gavin Miller was one of 10 men drinking outside the Church of the Annunciation in Blackpool told to move on by gardaí. File photo: Richard Mills.

A 37-year-old man apologised to a garda he verbally abused outside a Cork church by calling him “a dirty Dub”.

The case was prosecuted against Gavin Miller in his absence last month. Now he has been arrested and brought before Cork District Court on a bench warrant for sentencing.

Judge Olann Kelleher said he had written on the file that he was going to sentence the accused to three months in prison.

Miller said he was about to go on a rehabilitation programme at Tabor Lodge. The judge wondered how that was arising on the day of sentencing.

However, he added: “I would prefer him to be in Tabor Lodge. 

I will give him one last chance. I am sending him to jail for three months if he is not in Tabor Lodge by April 12.

Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said Miller apologised for not being in court last month. “He wishes to apologise to Garda Alan Hurson. His conduct was unacceptable. It was verbal but it was inappropriate.” 

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.

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