Dublin man Gerry Kelly said he was “astonished” when he received a summons from the court services advising him that the DPP are prosecuting him in relation to what he called ‘sitting on the boardwalk’ in Dublin city two years ago.
The summons he received advises that the prosecution relates to an alleged breach of the 1947 Health Act and section 31A of Covid 19 Temporary Restrictions, 2020.
Kelly, who is a tour guide by trade, says he was sitting on the boardwalk on the 16th of March 2021 when he was approached by two female Gardaí and told to move on.
He says he was preparing a St. Patrick’s Day quiz for his neighbours and enjoying the “beautiful weather” when he was approached.
The Rathgar resident who says he was involved in “community work for fifteen years” says he questioned the Gardaí as to why he should move on saying he had sat in the same area only a few days before without incident.
“They approached me and told me I had to move on and I said, ‘sorry I sat here three days earlier’,” he said.
He says that others were gathered on the boardwalk and were keeping a distance of about 2m from each other and that the area wasn’t overcrowded.
Kelly, who said he was out of work for two years because of covid restrictions, says he moved away and stood beside Grattan Bridge near Capel Street where he saw people gathering on the boardwalk again after they had been moved on by the Gardaí.
“The whole thing just looked nonsensical to me,” he said, recalling how there was ‘no tape or cordon in place to illustrate the area was off limits’.
He says he then went back and sat down again.
“The next thing I knew the police were back,” he said, adding that he was told that he “obviously had not followed their orders” and that he would be issued with a fine of €100.
“I was told to hand over my address,” he said adding that he Gardaí said they would be “issuing me a summons and if I didn’t pay it I would go to court where the judge could increase it several times over,”
He also claims he was told that if he didn’t have the money on him he would “be seeing the inside of Mountjoy,”
Kelly says Rathgar is ‘about 4km from the River Liffey’ noting that the exact location of his home is “probably just over 5km” in distance.
He says he is “astonished” that “two years after the incident” and “almost a year and a half after all the restrictions have been lifted that first of all the gards and second of all the DPP’s office thought, ‘yeah’ let’s go ahead with that, that looks good’,” he said.
“The boardwalk is a byword for antisocial behaviour,” he said, adding that it was “an open drugs market” and “a public toilet”, adding, “I just think this is extraordinary,”
“The pandemic cost me most of my life savings because I’m a tour guide,” he said explaining that he had “no work for two years,”
“I was on the pandemic payment, by the end of it I’d been cut down to 150 quid a week,” he said, adding that he had to use his savings to pay the last two years of his mortgage.
“I thought that was it, the pandemic cost me two years work, it cost me most of my life savings,” he said adding, “I thought it was over but here I am and I may still have to shell out another four or five hundred euros,”
“The stupidity, the pettiness, the vindictiveness, the complete lack of common sense in this is jaw dropping in my opinion,” he said.
Gript contacted An Garda Síochana in relation to the claims made in this article, however we were told that the force does not comment on matters of this nature.
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