A man found walking back and forth on a Dublin city centre street playing the ukulele in the early hours of the morning has avoided a conviction, after a judge heard the defendant had been badly affected when he unknowingly consumed fortified wine.
Killian Denny (52), of Adelaide Road, Dublin 2, pleaded guilty at Dún Laoghaire District Court to three public order offences including intoxication, threatening or abusive behaviour and failing to provide his name and address to gardaí.
Garda Ciarán Kavanagh, of Irishtown Garda Station, told the court he was on patrol on Leeson Street Upper, Dublin 4, at around 3am on Tuesday, January 21, 2025, when he observed Denny walking back and forth while playing a ukulele.
The court heard Denny was intoxicated and was later arrested.
Defence solicitor Michael O’Brien said his client, who lives alone and is on disability allowance, suffers from serious and complicated diabetes-related illnesses and has not worked due to his health problems.
The court heard the wine consumed by Denny had been given to him as a gift by a neighbour and that he believed it to be normal wine, unaware it was fortified wine with a much higher alcohol content.
Mr O’Brien said the alcohol had a particularly bad effect on his client due to his medical condition.
He told the court that Denny had not come to garda attention before or since the incident and had no previous convictions.
Judge Conor Fottrell applied the Probation Act under Section 1.1 and struck out the charges without conviction.
Commenting on the case, Judge Fottrell warned: “A case of beware of gifts from neighbours, particularly gifts they don’t want.”
The judge added he hoped Denny had “learned his lesson from this”.