Had a job on this morning that would be the cause of my very first venture inside of Drogheda Courthouse. It's no Judge Judy (I obviously had high hopes for gavel-smashing rage and groups of Gardaí fighting off those who had just been 'sent down' for life, but instead was treated to what looked like a part-time classroom with insufficient seating and a barely audible judge whose catchphrase seemed to be "I'll put this case back until *date*".).
That said, I did get to meet a new journalist today, who was an absolute gentleman, and had a little banter with one or two Gardaí (who were in great humour, to be fair to them. I'm not sure how. I've no idea how they don't explode in a burst of rage every time they've to go in there and look at suspended sentences and 'put back' over and over).
Ironically, the only person I did see getting any kind of punishment, a hefty fine (can't remember the specifics) was the only person that I looked at and thought "he seems a genuine enough fella". It was his first offence, too. Justice is served!
But yeah, I found the Gardaí to be fairly upbeat, which was good, considering they face such an uphill battle in there every time.
Came across an Avensis on the way to/from the court.
(I love that the driver passing by in the background is on the phone!)
The Army were out doing their bit on the town, too, delivering money, with a Garda jeep leading the way. Was gonna take a few photos but was asked not to (I always ask before taking photos in such circumstances, unless I actually need the photos for something) but I don't think I missed out on much.
I also spent about half an hour killing time hanging around at the side of a main road (bottom of the grove hill, for anyone familiar with the town). Figured, with the amount of AGS marked stuff that's usually on the town for Courthouse stuff, I'd get a 'panning' shot of a Garda car that I'd been trying for for a while. Wait around but no luck, so I head off.
Whilst I was there though, I did find it a little bit amusing the amount of cars that seen me and either started slowly reducing their speed, or suddenly dropped a phone from their hand when they seen me. Now, that might make sense if you picture a bloke standing at the side of the road with a 'hair-drier' shaped object pointed at the cars, and me in a reflective jacket, but for anyone that knows me, I'm a horribly overweight bloke, always dressed in black, with a big white lens on my camera, which is hanging beside my hip and not even in my hand for the most part.
I have no idea why people, upon seeing someone matching my description, start throwing phones onto the passenger seat or ease off the accelerator. What must they think I'm doing?
EDIT:
Two quick things; watermark on the above images is a pain in the ass, I know (though I've tried to make it transparent as possible to avoid wrecking the images) but I do have to have a notable watermark on there, unfortunately (I've been over this in the discussion thread).
Secondly, instead of banging on, and on (and on) on a thread that's supposed to be an image gallery the whole time, I've decided to throw up a blog section on my website. That way if I've any comment on any of the photos or such, no one has to wade through a fortnight of paragraphs on here and if they care they can visit the blog (which will also push up the numbers of people visiting my site, allowing me an inflated sense of self-importance
).Blog/site is here;
http://shanemaguire.ie/?page_id=1237
I'm not the best writer in the world, though, so expect a shoddy start to it. I'll try to update it at least weekly. (I feel like Mick Foley here, with all these cheap plugs
)
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