Cork crime: 'To get a sense of the place you live, it is worthwhile going to your local courthouse for a day'
'[W]hile crimes of one kind or another can flare up at various times and places without apparent rhyme or reason, it is possible to see certain patterns in criminal behaviour over the years.' says ‘Irish Examiner’ court reporter Liam Heylin at the Criminal Courts of Justice on Anglesea St in Cork.
Cork District Court is a lively and colourful place.
In the space of a couple of days recently, one visiting judge had to contend with an accused man shouting abuse at her and another man sounding like he was a knight addressing a lady on a pedestal.
One guy fulminated at the judge: “I am holding you in contempt of court”. That was a first.
Days later, another man’s mixture of confusion and genuine gratitude for the dismissal of his case caused him to trip over his tongue with an expression of thanks to the judge that was hard not to like: “Thank you my lady of honour.”
In the cut and thrust of exceptionally busy court lists it is possible that Judge Treasa Kelly — who was variously “found in contempt” and venerated in noble terms — may not even recall the incidents.
From Monday, June 23, 2025, the three-day series is running in the 'Irish Examiner' in print and online here.
And in a court world of the most stark contrasts, those two men could have been shoulder-to-shoulder in the bustling hallways with a young woman making her way to another courtroom at the Anglesea St courthouse for the sentencing of her brother who raped her when she was 15.
Courtroom 1 hears in passing the couple of funny remarks. Courtroom 6 hears the unimaginably deep hurt experienced by a 15-year-old dreading the birth of a baby conceived by being raped by her brother.
And, in the strange microclimate of a courthouse, she probably left the building to the ambient noise of courthouse regulars, recidivists, frequent-flyers, greeting each other with the line heard day in, day out, “What are ya up for?”
Any courthouse can feel like a random mix of offences from shoplifting and drunken behaviour to rape or murder. And while crimes of one kind or another can flare up at various times and places without apparent rhyme or reason, it is possible to see certain patterns in criminal behaviour over the years — who is committing them, and how the cases are penalised.
Some trends jump out from the last few years:
- Shoplifting always featured but serial, unrelenting, systematic shoplifting has become a more common feature;
- Juvenile crime can no longer be seen as the paddling pool of criminality. Increasingly, younger teenagers are going in at the deep end with the most serious types of crime, including rape and murder;
- While the meat of some crimes may be the same, technologies are changing the way crimes are committed in the past few years — money laundering is in court almost every day.
Typically, money laundering involves a student with no previous convictions being asked online to let a five-figure sum bounce into their account for a day or so for a payment of a couple of hundred euro. The money mules find themselves facing an extremely serious charge and a conviction that could play havoc with future international travel, if not a long jail term.
Becoming very prevalent is the issue of accessing and distributing child abuse material online.
Any notion that child sexual abuse was only a stain from decades ago that is only now filtering through the courts does not hold: New cases with very recent dates are happening all the time.
The number of gardaí in protective services units is growing even though officers in those units will tell you they are understaffed given the volume of complaints coming through.
In recent years, the victim is now routinely more centrally involved in court proceedings.
People still feel in many cases that it is all about the accused — all about his sob story and devil take the hindmost for the victim. But, if it is still imperfect, that situation has definitely changed a lot in favour of the victim.
The two words that crop up most often in cases across the board over the last few years are ‘mental health’. At almost every turn, it is an issue that is raised in cases, for victims of crime and very very often for the accused.
Back in the 1980s and ’90s in Cork, the drug of choice was MDMA, better known as ecstasy. Today it surfaces only in the tiniest quantities. Cannabis was and is a mainstay.
It used to be said that, in terms of drugs and criminality, the difference between Dublin and Cork was heroin. But of course, that is history now and heroin dealing is commonplace in Cork, as is its use and its phenomenal damage.
Cocaine was too expensive to be a street drug. Now that it is less expensive and there appears to be more available income for it, cocaine is sold plentifully.
The legislature came up with the idea a long time ago to impose a ‘mandatory’ minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life imprisonment for someone dealing more than €13,000 worth of drugs. But legal challenges have now left that mandatory minimum sentence having only the vaguest connection with its original meaning.
Fully suspended sentences of three, four, and five years are handed down regularly in Cork Circuit Criminal Court for the so called ‘15A’ cases — the most serious drug-dealing charge.
Moving on from drugs… but of course, one cannot glibly say ‘moving on from drugs’ when it comes to courts: Even when cases are not about drugs, addiction is at the heart of so much offending.
The analysis of court coverage in these pages over a five-year period indicates a figure of 72% for cases referring in some way to alcohol, drugs, or addiction. If anything, that high figure feels somewhat low.
Most cases — rape, murder, burglary, car theft, assault, public order, shoplifting, robbery, domestic violence — are carried out by people who are intoxicated.
Briefest moments of laughter can leaven the heavy mix of ingredients that go into a day in court. So can a bit of hope — the uplifting feeling that someone has put criminality behind them for good, even if it’s only one or two who get to come good on the promise, “You’ll never see me again, your honour.”
Daily court coverage can only ever be a snapshot for the public of what is going on every day. To get a sense of the place where you live, it is worthwhile going to your local courthouse for a day to get a feel for what your town is like beyond the facts and figures.
Seeing it for yourself will undoubtedly complicate any preconceived sense of ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’ and lawyers telling sob stories so their clients avoid jail.
It is worth hearing some of the background stories — often relating to chaotic, dysfunctional childhoods, sometimes to abuse and, with shocking frequency, to the suicide of mums, dads, brothers, sisters, sons, or daughters. As if these could ever be dismissed as sob stories.
As well as checking the snapshots in the newspaper, go to court: Watch, listen, and get an altogether messier but truer picture of your community.
