Blacking out the name of Queen Victoria on Cork street signs has resulted in three men being prosecuted for causing criminal damage.
Today, after a trial through the Irish language at Cork District Court, the judge ordered them to make charitable contributions to the St Vincent de Paul Society.
Judge Paul Kelly described the three defendants as people of the utmost sincerity, but ruled that they were not entitled to cause damage, albeit very precise damage in furtherance of their views.
"I have to find the facts proved," Judge Kelly said.
He ordered them to pay €250 each to the Society of St Vincent de Paul as a charitable contribution to finalise the matter without a conviction.
An Irish language interpreter was available to translate some of the evidence.
This followed a successful legal challenge by one of the defendants, Diarmaid O Cadhla, of Upper Beaumont Drive, Ballintemple, Cork, asserting his right to have the case dealt with through Irish.
Mr O Cadhla and two co-accused, Tom O'Connor, from Mangerton Close, the Glen, and Tony Walsh from Carrigmore Park, Ballinlough, denied criminal damage to street signs at three separate locations in Cork city on 2 February 2017.
Detective Garda Neil Walsh gave evidence of the background giving rise to the charges.
He said: "On February 2 2017 street names in the city centre – Victoria Road on both sides of the street, Victoria Cross Road on both sides of the street and Victoria Street on the north side of the city ... were damaged with black paint, in particular on the name Victoria in English and in Irish.
"I was tasked with investigating following a complaint from Cork City Council.
"From my inquiries this was part of a campaign from a group called Cork Street Names Campaign.
"These are a group who campaign against street names, monarchy names, in particular Queen Victoria. The Famine Queen they called her.
"Three suspects more or less identified themselves in an article in the Irish Examiner on 3 February 2017 with a photo of two of the suspects painting the street signs.
"Also on that date, Diarmuid O Cadhla conducted a radio interview with PJ Coogan on 96FM."
State solicitor, Frank Nyhan, said there was no dispute about the facts of the case, in so far as the application of black paint was concerned, but the prosecution allegation that this constituted criminal damage was denied by all three defendants.
They argued that Queen Victoria was The Famine Queen and should not be honoured with streets of Cork being named after her.
