
Breaking Ex-cathaoirleach pleads guilty to €172,000 theft from charity
Seán McKiernan, with an address at Trinity Bungalow, Virginia Road, Bailieborough in Co Cavan, was charged with 58 counts of theft at various unknown locations within the State.
The charges relate to thefts in amounts ranging from €500 to €7,500 from Navan Mental Health Housing Association on dates in 2019.
McKiernan, 43, appeared before Judge John Martin at Trim Circuit Court, where the former Fine Gael councillor pleaded guilty to two sample charges.
The first sample count relates to the theft of €5,230 on 26 March 2019 at an unknown location, while the second count involves the theft of €800 from the Meath-based charity on the 6 April 2020.
McKiernan was a councillor for the Bailieborough electoral area from 2007 to 2014.
He made history in 2011 when, at age 29, he was elected as the youngest ever Cathaoirleach of Cavan County Council.
He was a member of the Cavan Monaghan Education Training Board and served a term as its chair.
McKiernan was also a member of the national executive of Fine Gael for over a decade.
Free legal aid was previously granted to Mr McKiernan in the form of a solicitor and two barristers.
Judge Martin remanded McKiernan on continuing bail to appear before Trim Circuit Court on 21 October next for a sentencing date to be set.
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16 hours ago
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The CPS would only need to show that someone present was likely to feel harassed or alarmed, even if no one actually did, a threshold already established in case law, Prof Mead explained. Mr Hall also said it would be possible to bring a case on those grounds but that he would "have to see what the investigation shows, because it's hard to prove that he [Bob Vylan's singer] realised that there were Jews in the audience, and he was saying this in order to harass them." In a statement on Tuesday, Bob Vylan attempted to clarify their position saying: "We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people," adding that they "are for the dismantling of a violent military machine" that "has destroyed much of Gaza." Whether or not that defence holds weight would depend heavily on intent, which is central to any criminal prosecution under UK law, Mr Hall says. "The 'intending' is really important with criminal law, particularly with what you call speech offences," he said. "From a criminal law perspective, the circumstances in which you make it a crime to say something are limited. One of the key limits is what do you intend, or what do you believe is going to happen?" Referring to the music of NWA, a hip-hop group that rose to prominence in Compton, California in the 1980s, Mr Hall said there are examples in their music which is "implicitly saying 'kill the cops.'" "No one's going to say that's what they were intending anyone should do as a result of it," he said. "I think that if you had a prosecution of someone involved in a music festival, they would inevitably say, 'I'm a performer, I'm on stage. How can you begin to prove that I meant that like some gang lord telling his lieutenant to carry out a hit?'" How does this compare to other recent cases? In recent days, a number of prominent UK politicians and commentators - including the Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp - have likened the situation to the case of Lucy Connolly. Connolly was jailed for 31 months in October 2024 after using social media to call for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire during the Southport Riots last summer. In a post on X, Mr Philp said of Bob Vylan "they should be arrested and prosecuted – just like some of those who did the same during the riots." The case has also reignited claims of a so-called "two-tier" approach to policing. Andrea Jenkyns, a Reform UK mayor, said that if Bob Vylan are not arrested over their chants, it would be evidence of a "two-tiered justice system." But there is little legal basis for that claim, according to Prof David Mead. "The idea of a 'two-tier' criminal justice system following the conviction of Lucy Connolly is, in my view, very misplaced. The IDF is a powerful state army thousands of miles away. Those seeking refuge in the UK are vulnerable private citizens at immediate risk should anyone take up her suggestion," Prof Mead said. Steve Kuncewicz is a partner at a law firm in Manchester and specialises in legal issues involving social media. In the Lucy Connolly case, he said, there was a "very different set of an awful lot of other evidence that went into that case." "That was a very specific call to action to cause harm to a very specific part of the community. There was a real risk in... the Southport riots, that that would be likely to happen." "It's a recurrence that's being drawn, but again, it's a very dangerous one, and it's an incorrect one. It's the two completely different kinds of incidents." The likeliest outcome? Ultimately, any prosecution would hinge on proving intent, that the Bob Vylan chant was meant to stir up racial hatred or harass Jewish people. "At the moment, I think that off the back of what I've seen from the footage of Glastonbury, I'm sceptical that they would have that," Mr Hall said. He's also, he says, "sceptical that you could prove in the course of law that he was using the IDF as a substitute code word for Jews." In the current climate in the UK, Mr Kuncewicz believes the wider political pressure could still influence how police approach the case. "Whatever happens, it's going to be very, very heavily scrutinised. But I do think given the current atmosphere we're in, the police may feel a bit more compelled to make an example here because they might see it as an incitement to violence."