{"id":470776,"date":"2026-05-06T06:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T06:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/470776\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T06:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T06:07:18","slug":"former-garda-remanded-in-custody-over-fatal-drogheda-hit-and-run-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/470776\/","title":{"rendered":"Former garda remanded in custody over fatal Drogheda hit-and-run \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A garda<\/a> who fatally struck a man with his car and failed to remain at the scene has been remanded in custody in advance of his sentencing. <\/p>\n

Michael Ball, whose address was listed at Drogheda<\/a> Garda station for the purpose of the charge, has pleaded guilty to two offences relating to a hit-and-run<\/a> in Drogheda town in the early hours of St Patrick\u2019s Day<\/a> 2024.<\/p>\n

Niall McEneaney, aged 45, was catastrophically injured and died as a result of being hit by Ball\u2019s car on Rathmullen Road at approximately 2am on March 17th, 2024.<\/p>\n

At a sentencing hearing at Dundalk<\/a> Courthouse on Tuesday, Judge Dara Hayes remanded Ball in custody until June 15th when he expects to finalise the sentence pending the completion of a victim impact statement.<\/p>\n

Outlining that decision, the judge said the matter involved serious offending and a custodial sentence seemed inevitable. <\/p>\n

Ball, aged 28 and originally from Co Donegal, was suspended from duty following the incident and later resigned from An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na.<\/p>\n

He has pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving causing death and one count of failure to offer assistance following the collision. <\/p>\n

\"NiallNiall McEneaney, who died in the incident. Photograph: St Fechins Facebook <\/p>\n

Under questioning from prosecuting barrister Miska Hanahoe, an officer with the police ombudsman explained that McEneaney had been walking home when he was hit by Ball\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

Fiosr\u00fa officer Alma Gavin said that the defendant had acknowledged drinking on the night in question and was travelling at up to twice the speed limit before the crash. <\/p>\n

She told the court that McEneaney received catastrophic injuries from the crash and had been found to have died by the first garda\u00ed at the scene.<\/p>\n

After discovering Ball\u2019s licence plate down the road from the crash, the court heard investigators then went to the home in which he was \u201ccouch surfing\u201d with garda colleagues.<\/p>\n

The court heard the vehicle was discovered parked up a small hill, at the furthermost part of the farmyard, with the front damaged part of the car parked right up against a gate.<\/p>\n

Inside the home at around 4.20am, she said Ball was discovered to be in a \u201ccomatose sleep\u201d and was found to be clearly intoxicated when he was awoken.<\/p>\n

The court heard he was cautioned and replied \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d when asked who had been driving the car.<\/p>\n

Gavin said CCTV obtained in the investigation showed that he had been socialising with friends and colleagues before the crash and had been drinking beer.<\/p>\n

He returned to the Garda station car park at 1.56am, got in his car and drove in the direction of Rathmullen Road. The fatal crash happened minutes later.<\/p>\n

McEneaney had been walking along the road and was two minutes from home at the time of the crash, the court. He had been intending to cross the road at a pedestrian crossing.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed determined that the defendant was travelling at between 107km\/h and 110km\/h before the collision and begun breaking 0.24 seconds before the impact, reducing speed to between 86km\/hr and 109km\/h. The speed limit on the road was 50km\/h.<\/p>\n

The court heard the road surface was wet or damp and it was foggy at the time. <\/p>\n

In May 2024, Ball submitted a statement to garda\u00ed through his solicitor where he acknowledged his role in the crash.<\/p>\n

He said a male had run across the road and it happened so suddenly he did not have a chance to avoid the crash.<\/p>\n

He said he was \u201cfilled with remorse\u201d and deeply regretted not stopping.<\/p>\n

Asked by garda\u00ed why he did not stop, he said he was in \u201csheer panic\u201d \u2013 adding that he had \u201cno answer\u201d to why he had not offered assistance to McEneaney.<\/p>\n

The court heard that McEaneney was well known in the Louth GAA community and had been out socialising with friends on the night in question.<\/p>\n

\"NiallNiall McEneaney’s wife Grace Martin (right) leaving Dundalk Circuit Court, Co Louth, on Tuesday. Photograph: Niall Carson\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

In a victim impact statement, his wife Grace Martin described McEneaney as her \u201ceternal best friend\u201d and said her life had been \u201ctorn in half\u201d since March 17th, 2024.<\/p>\n

She turned to Ball, who she described as a \u201ccoward\u201d and asked: \u201cWhat made you decide to train as a garda?\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge said it seemed a custodial sentence is inevitable and remanded the defendant in custody pending finalisation of the matter, which is envisaged to take place on June 15th. \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A garda who fatally struck a man with his car and failed to remain at the scene has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,9,10,6368,13415,23663,18,13,14,5650,6,19,17,11,12,23664,15,16,5,11697,85396,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-470776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-donegal","12":"tag-drogheda","13":"tag-dundalk","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-featured-news","16":"tag-featurednews","17":"tag-fiosru","18":"tag-headlines","19":"tag-ie","20":"tag-ireland","21":"tag-latest-news","22":"tag-latestnews","23":"tag-louth","24":"tag-main-news","25":"tag-mainnews","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-road-safety","28":"tag-st-patricks-day","29":"tag-top-stories","30":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116526137133897580","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470776","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=470776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}