Man Detained After Apparently Ordering Romanians in Derry to ‘Speak English’
When the Romanians entered, the situation of an event occurring on August 22, 2024, at a barbershop in Derry got worse. A local man was arrested and held in custody.
Cahill Seamus Doherty, a 47-year old resident of Brookview Glen, Eglinton was served summons to appear before Derry Magistrate’s Court on August 23rd, charged with disorderly conduct.
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The conflict started at around 10 in the morning upon police receipt of reports of a disturbance in a Turkish barber shop in the Diamond area in Derry.
The owner of the establishment had made a complaint against Doherty, he had been found drunk in the shop.
The situation became worse when two Romanians came to the barbershop and began speaking their language.
This stirred a resentful Doherty who, sources say, was already fuming and protested, saying, “speak English, this is Ireland .”
Testimonies of the incident revealed that Doherty’s rampage was not overlooked by other people.
A troubled situation with the Romanians
While the two Romanians were still engaged in a conversation, mumbling became louder, it was then that Doherty became more infuriated when he ordered them to speak English.
This is said to have been accompanied by further verbal altercations and Doherty was noted to have caused significant disruption in the barbershop.
Subsequently, the police intervened, and Doherty was arrested at the crime scene.
When Doherty was produced in the Derry Magistrate’s Court for another trial on Sept 1 he was charged with disorderly conduct in relation to the occurrence of August 22. His case was heard before the Deputy District Judge Alan White.
On the defence of Cahill Seamus Doherty, the lawyer, Grainne McAnaney, put it to the defence that the remark made by the defendant was not meant to be taken in a wrong way and that what the defendant said was regarded in the nature of ‘banter’.
McAnaney said that Doherty was flatly denying the allegations and opined that the verbal attack may have stemmed from alcohol use and not from a desire to intimidate.
McAnaney also pointed to the fact that Doherty continued to seek help for his alcohol dependency problems.
The defense sought the court to allow Doherty to be released on bond terming his conduct as not being a regular violation of the law owing to his current state.
With these reasons in mind, Deputy District Judge Alan White agreed not to grant bail due to risk of danger and continual disturbances.
The judge thus ordered for Doherty to be held in custody explaining that the charges needed to be dealt with in a court of law in order to gain a full appreciation of the circumstances of the case.
This case has raised concern over community relations and the issues of handling public disturbances.
The barbershop story explains the idea of cultural relations and the possibility of misinterpretations if people use other languages with different traditions.
It also highlights the importance of the legal system in responding to situations involving disorderly conduct and the fact that complete and fair justice shall be provided to all parties involved.
Since Cahill Seamus Doherty is still detained, he is expected to be taken to court again on the 19 of September.
Depending on the course of the court that will be held soon, it will be possible to define the further steps in relation to the problem and, if necessary, to commence further action.
