Gemma O’Doherty Is Appealing

O’Doherty at Bray District Court

aving been given a suspended sentence and a fine at Bray District Court last September, Gemma O’Doherty’s appeal against the conviction has been adjourned to October 17th.

O’Doherty was convicted of threatening and abusive behaviour, resisting arrest and refusing to give her name and address to a garda at an anti-lockdown protest on the Kilmacanogue pedestrian bridge on August 28th, 2020.

The noted conspiracy theorist called the gardai present at that arrest “gangsters”, “thugs” and “traitors”, claiming that they “covered up murder”. In a court case that ran from 10am to 7pm last September, judge David Kennedy described O’Doherty’s words as “atrocious”, and handed down a two-month suspended sentence and a €750 fine.

At a special sitting this week to set a date for the appeal case, the court was informed that no evidence had been presented by the defence at that Bray court case, and that they intended to do so for the appeal hearing.

Fr Gerry Young

Among many controversies, O’Doherty interviewed Greystones’ Father Gerry Young in July 2019, his remarks about the Tuam babies scandal provoking Catherine Corless – the award-winning journalist who broke the story – to say of the Greystones priest, “Words fail me, but these words come to mind: misinformed, mind-boggling and blaming women once again“.

There was also O’Doherty’s one-woman anti-vaccine protest opposite Shoreline Greystones on May 22nd 2021.

The adjourned hearing will take place on Monday, October 17th.