{"id":287478,"date":"2026-01-16T11:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T11:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/287478\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T11:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T11:58:07","slug":"raphoe-man-caught-doing-175kph-wascoming-home-from-a-wake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/287478\/","title":{"rendered":"Raphoe man caught doing 175kph was”coming home from a wake”"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Raphoe man caught driving at 175km\/h coming home from a wake on National Slowdown Day has been spared a driving ban.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jack McConnell was fined \u20ac1,000 for the incident on the N15 at Colehill, Newtowncunningham.<\/p>\n

Gardai were conducting a speed check at 10.45pm on the N15, a road governed by a speed limit of 100km\/h, when they clocked McConnell driving at 175km\/h.<\/p>\n

Judge Emile Daly remarked that this was a \u201csignificant speed and in an area that every effort has been made by every agency that exists for speed to be reduced\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old McConnell, of Dromore Raphoe, was charged with dangerous driving, which carries an automatic driving disqualification. However, his solicitor, Mr Frank Dorrian, asked if the court would consider a reduction to a charge of careless driving.<\/p>\n

Inspector McDaid said there was \u201cnobody else endangered other than himself\u201d, but said he was \u201cin your hands\u201d when
Judge Daly asked what the State\u2019s position was in relation to a reduction of the charge.<\/p>\n

Mr Dorrian told the court that McConnell had been \u201cbeset by bereavement\u201d at the time and several people around him had \u201crecently departed\u201d. On the night in question, McConnell was coming from the wake of a neighbour.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps that distracted his attention from his otherwise impeccable behaviour,\u201d Mr Dorrian said, adding that there was a reference from McConnell\u2019s employer \u201cwhich speaks extremely highly of him\u201d.<\/p>\n

Judge Daly again asked what the State\u2019s position was and Inspector McDaid said the accused had no penalty points, had not come to adverse attention since and \u201cI think he has learned a lesson\u201d.<\/p>\n

Judge Daly said ahead of was inclined not to accede to a reduction, but would do so on this occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very much on the upper end of what would be regarded as careless driving,\u201d Judge Daly said. \u201cI don\u2019t want the message going out to say that this is an acceptable level of speed because it is not \u2013 regardless of circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes he want to end up resulting in another wake?\u201d<\/p>\n

McConnell, dressed in a grey suit and tie, was accompanied by his parents to court.<\/p>\n

Juge Daly convicted McConnell of careless driving and fined him \u20ac1,000, allowing six months to pay.<\/p>\n

Raphoe man caught doing 175kph was\u201dcoming home from a wake\u201d was last modified: January 15th, 2026 by Staff Writer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Raphoe man caught driving at 175km\/h coming home from a wake on National Slowdown Day has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-287478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}