Two brothers from Belturbet, County Cavan, were each ordered to complete 180 hours of community service after admitting theft from a charity bar at a Dublin music festival. John McGinley, 25, and his younger brother Conal McGinley, 22, had pleaded guilty to stealing a combined €8,645 while working behind the bar for Workers Beer Company at Marlay Park on 8 July 2016.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Workers Beer Company raises funds at music festivals. Gardaí observed the brothers putting cash into their pockets rather than into the charity collection during the first day of the three-day event. When they were arrested that evening, John McGinley had €4,145 on him and a further €1,130 in his car. Conal McGinley had €1,860 on him, with additional cash found in the vehicle.
The court heard that John McGinley had held a finance-sector job in London but had accumulated gambling debts in the UK. His counsel said he had since left that role, returned to Ireland and addressed the debt with help from his family. Conal McGinley was completing a business degree and his counsel said he had taken the money to help his older brother. Both made immediate admissions when interviewed by gardaí and had no previous convictions.
Judge Cormac Quinn said the brothers were educated young men from a good family who had already experienced stigma and lost employment opportunities because of the case. He ordered each to carry out 180 hours of community service within a year in place of an eleven-month prison sentence. The judge initially proposed twelve months, but reduced it after submissions about the effect of that term on future travel and immigration opportunities.
The community-service orders brought the prosecution to a conclusion after the brothers' earlier guilty pleas. The report is based on Courts News Ireland coverage of the sentencing hearing.