A judge has approved a bail surety for a jailed mother of nine whose humanist marriage he described as ‘mumbo jumbo’ and 'for the fairies’.
At Ennis District Court today, Judge Patrick Durcan approved Thomas McLeish as independent surety for 41-year-old Patricia McLeish (Fogarty) of Shanbally, Craughwell, Co Galway.
Solicitor for the Co Clare native, Stiofán Fitzpatrick said that Mr McLeish is the ex-husband of the woman.
Before approving surety that will allow the woman be released on bail from prison pending her appeal to the Circuit Court, Judge Durcan said that the case had caused him "distress".
Ms McLeish (Fogarty) spent Tuesday night in Limerick prison after earlier that day, Judge Durcan at Killaloe District Court jailed the mother of nine, with five children aged under the age of nine, for four months after she pleaded guilty to driving without insurance.
It was the Co Clare woman’s eighth conviction for driving without insurance and she was disqualified from driving when detected driving without insurance in March of this year.
Judge Durcan also banned Ms McLeish (Fogarty) from driving for two years after he convicted her of giving a Garda a false name when she said she was Patricia Fogarty after being stopped at the side of the road by Det Garda John Jenks on March 6 last at Bridgetown, Co Clare.
On Tuesday, solicitor for Ms McLeish (Fogarty), Jennifer Donovan said that her client now goes by the name of Patricia Fogarty after taking her husband’s Fogarty surname after marrying at a humanist ceremony four years ago.
Ms Donovan said: “She presently goes by the Fogarty name and uses the name of Fogarty but I can’t give you any documentation to show that.”
In reply, Judge Durcan said: “Because basically that is not her name.”
Ms Donovan said that there was no deliberate attempt by her client to mislead Det Jenks on March 6 last when she said that she is Patricia Fogarty.
She said: “It isn’t a name she plucked out of the air. Fogarty is a name she goes by. Her children’s birth certificates have Fogarty on it."
However, Judge Durcan said: “The law provides procedures for entering into marriage which is something that imposes civil responsibility and imposes civil obligations. That is what marriage is and your client wasn’t married four years ago.”
Judge Durcan said: “Let us go by legal principles here - her maiden name is Haskett, her first husband was McLeish - her only husband.”
Ms Donovan said: “She instructed me that she was married in a humanist ceremony four years ago.”
Judge Durcan said that the woman “piles on by telling untruths to Det Garda Jenks and instructs you to come in here with this cock and bull story about being married that is daft and for the fairies”.
Ms Donovan said that her client has a voting card with the name Fogarty on it.
In reply, Judge Durcan said: “Your client has been living in an unreal world.”
Judge Durcan said: “Det Garda Jenks spent a considerable time talking to this driver at the side of the road and she did not come clean despite Det Jenks’s suspicions and she played it out to the very last moment.”
Ms McLeish (Fogarty) will now be allowed out on bail pending the hearing of the appeal against her jail term and driving ban at the circuit court.
