A comedian was arrested after calling a garda a “bacon, cabbage and spud-munching culchie” during a disturbance at a Dublin hospital.

Alex Lyons (52) was being removed by security from an accident and emergency department over a parking dispute when he shouted the insult at the officer.

Lyons was found guilty of using threatening, abusive and insulting words in the incident.

He had denied the charge, his defence arguing that it was not a crime to call someone a culchie.

Dublin District Court heard Lyons was a comedian who wrote for television and radio, including Marty Whelan’s show on Lyric FM.

Adjourning the case, Judge James Faughnan told him he would consider putting him on a peace bond if he makes a €150 charity donation.

Lyons, of Loreto Avenue, Rathfarnham, pleaded not guilty to causing a breach of the peace at St James’s Hospital.

The court heard he had undergone surgery for a stroke and spent four weeks at the hospital before he returned on May 9.

He claimed that he had been discharged incorrectly, did not receive illness benefit, was left with no money and demanded to see a social worker.

Garda Shane Lohan told the court he was called to the hospital at 3.50pm. Lyons was being restrained on the ground by security staff and when approached, he stood up in a very agitated state.

“He said ‘f*** you, you Nazi – you bacon, cabbage and spud-munching p***k’,” Garda Lohan said.

Cross-examined by Brian Storan for the defence, Garda Lohan said it was possible that the Nazi comment was not directed at him.

However, he believed it was, and that the accused called him a “p***k”.

He added that the words Lyons admitted using were also offensive.

The court heard when Lyons arrived at the hospital, he was panicking as he thought he was going to have another stroke.

He was in a hurry and left his car parked “somewhere it shouldn’t have been”.

He told the court that security told him to move it but he refused and sat down in protest.

Lyons maintained that security treated him “like an animal”. He said he was wearing his best suit and they came at him with surgical gloves.

He alleged they removed him forcibly, “hog-tied” him and and sat on him, calling him a “scumbag” and an “old b***ard”.

He said he passed out twice and “could have died at any point”.

He alleged he later realised his thumb was broken.

Lyons maintained he had called the garda a “bacon, cabbage and spud-munching culchie”, that he did not recall using the word “p***k” and the Nazi comment was directed over the garda’s shoulder at the security men.

He said the words he used to the garda could have been heard in any comedy show and added: “Culchies are cool.”

Mr Storan argued that what was said did not amount to a breach of the peace.

He said it might be offensive to call someone a “bacon, cabbage and spud-munching culchie”, but it was not criminal

behaviour.

The court heard Lyons had one previous conviction for giving false information.

This arose from an incident in which he made a “miscalculated phone call” as a part of a comedy show after which gardai thought there “might be a bomb”.

Mr Storan said the accused was not a threat to society. He lived alone, looked after his mother’s cat and wrote sketches for Marty Whelan’s breakfast radio show.

He worked “on and off” and was “not a man of means”.

The judge said he would consider putting the accused on a one-year peace bond and adjourned the case until

December.

hnews@herald.ie

Online Editors