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Niall Carson/PA Wire
Bloody Mary
Councillor convicted of assault over Harney paint incident
Louise Minihan of Éirígí is convicted of throwing red paint over then-Minister for Health, Mary Harney, in November.
A MEMBER of Dublin City Council has been found guilty of assault and criminal damage, after spraying red paint on former health minister Mary Harney last year,
Louise Minihan, 29, was convicted of the charges, to which she had pleaded not guilty, at Dublin District Court this afternoon.
Harney, who gave evidence at the trial this morning, had been attending a sod-turning ceremony at a hospital in Cherry Orchard on Dublin’s northside on November 1, when she was sprayed with red paint that had been carried in a sports bottle.
Minihan, a former member of the Sinn Féin party who now represents socialist republican party Éirígí, had been invited to the ceremony as a member of the city council for the area.
RTÉ reports that Harney said she had originally thought she had been sprayed with water, but then saw the red substance when she looked up – as advisers told her it was paint.
Minihan had then told Harney she had “blood on her hands”, she said.
Harney said she believed the damage caused was somewhere in the region of €600 to €800, but she was not seeking compensation for the damages.
Justice Ann Watkins gave Minihan a two-month suspended sentence and a fine of €1,500.
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