Men ordered to pay €3,500 after boy racer investigation

The men were identified after footage of their driving was posted on social media sites

Two men who were caught doing doughnuts in their cars following a garda investigation into boy racing at the Rally of the Lakes in Killarney have been ordered to pay €3,500 each.

The men were identified after footage of their driving was posted on social media sites and got almost 250,000 hits on Facebook.

Both men pleaded guilty at the district court in Killarney for charges of careless driving.

Killarney hosts the Rally of the Lakes in April and May every year.

It is a significant tourist event, attracting tens of thousands of visitors to the town.

However it also attracts young men and women in modified cars, and a specific garda operation is put in place each year to control these so-called boy racers.

Following this year’s Rally of the Lakes, footage was posted on Facebook showing crowds of people gathered near Moll's Gap outside Killarney to watch boy racers on a busy public road.

The footage, cut to music, showed two Toyota Corolla cars spinning around each other while a man stood in the centre of the road.

Gardaí in Killarney began an investigation and Garda Joe Sullivan tracked down the drivers of the two cars.

Today they were charged at the district court in Killarney.

Iarfhlaith O'Brien is a 21-year-old farrier with the Coolmore stud from Ravendale, Rathmanna, Thurles, Co Tipperary. Martin Hayden, from Longfordpass in Thurles, is 25 and works on his family’s farm.

Both of them pleaded guilty to substituted charges of careless driving.

Their solicitor Pat Sheehan said both men were putting their hands up. He said, because they like rallies and cars they were brought on by the adrenaline and became willing participants.

Judge James O'Connor ordered both men to pay €3,500 each and to install devices in whatever vehicles they drive to limit their speed to a maximum of 100km/h.

He adjourned the case until November.