A Co Galway farmer has been found guilty of using threatening, abusive and insulting words towards a neighbour during a long-running dispute that the court heard centred on a missing dog.
At Gort District Court, Judge Adrian Harris found Brian Gill, 44, of Cahermore, Kinvara, guilty over two incidents, on 21 May 2025 and 2 February this year. The offences involved words used against Brian Murphy with intent to provoke a breach of the peace. The judge did not convict Gill on either charge. Instead he applied the Probation Act for one year and said Gill must complete an anger management course if the Probation Service recommends it.
Murphy told the court that during the May 2025 incident at Caherawoneen South, Kinvara, the two men met while driving on a narrow road at about 9pm. He said Gill accused him of stealing his dog and told him: “I will get you.” Murphy said he knew nothing about the dog and did not speak to Gill.
Gill told the court his dog went missing on 19 May 2025 and that he received a call on 1 July saying the dog was 35km away. He said the animal did not walk that distance. He denied threatening Murphy, saying he asked where his dog was and that Murphy called him a fool. Gill said he replied that Murphy was “the only fool who sells top soil from his farm”.
Gill said three people had told him the dog was seen in the back of Murphy’s yard, but he declined to identify them. Under cross-examination, he said he was angry because the dispute had lasted 10 years and that this was the 15th time he had been in court over the matter, directly or indirectly.
Gill’s barrister, Martin Durack, said there was an agrarian background and past disputes over fences. He accepted Gill’s language may have been brusque but said there was no threat and no intention to cause a breach of the peace. Judge Harris said there was context and clear ill feeling between the men, but that Gill should not engage in such behaviour.