highly intoxicated | 

Mum (41) found with knife in trousers after Dublin pub staff activated panic alarm

The accused was highly intoxicated and had been given several chances to leave the pub.

Andrew Phelan

Today at 01:30

A mother of two was found with a large kitchen knife in her trousers after pub staff activated a panic alarm over her drunken behaviour and refusal to leave.

Maria O’Meara (41) also frightened Luas users when she began hurling abuse and kicking the doors of a tram in another episode, a court heard.

Judge Patricia Cronin yesterday jailed her for six months for charges arising from several incidents.

O’Meara, of Emmet Crescent, Inchicore, admitted possession of a weapon, criminal damage, threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour, public intoxication and theft.

Dublin District Court heard gardaí were called to a panic alarm activation at John’s Bar on Thomas Street on September 17 last year.

The accused was highly intoxicated and had been given several chances to leave the pub but had failed to do so.

She was unsteady on her feet and when gardaí searched her, they found the large kitchen knife in her trousers.

Separately, gardai were called to a central Dublin Luas stop on July 26 last and found the accused verbally abusing members of the public and kicking the tram doors.

She was arrested and charged over her recklessness but no actual damage was caused to the tram.

On July 5, gardaí found her apparently smoking a drug at John Street West and told her to stop. She refused and continued to smoke it in front of people. She would not give gardaí her details when asked and was arrested.

On August 3, she stole four jumpers worth a combined €299 from Weavers of Ireland on Westmoreland Street.

O’Meara had 43 previous convictions for theft, public order and other offences but the most recent was 16 years ago.

The accused was from a respectable family but when she was younger, she came under the influence of a partner who was “cut from a different cloth” and she got involved in drugs, her solicitor Michael Kelleher said.

He had recently come “back on the scene”.

O’Meara’s vulnerability was a factor in her offending, he said.

“When a panic alarm had to be activated in the pub due to the behaviour of the defendant, there was a large kicthen knife down the waistband of her trousers,” the judge said.

“It’s simply not acceptable to be found carrying a knife in that manner.”

The incident on the Luas “would have been frightening to any member of the public travelling on public transport and utilising that service,” the judge said