A retired couple from Co Monaghan who captured their neighbour's cat and tied it in a bag, before leaving it at a lake, have each been given three month prison sentences.
67-year-old Patrick Connolly and 64-year-old Bernie Connolly, with an address at Alderwood in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, had both pleaded guilty at Monaghan District Court to engaging in an act of animal cruelty at their home on 13 May last year.
They had also pleaded guilty to stealing a female cat on the same occasion.
The couple appeared before Monaghan District Court on Monday, where Judge Raymond Finnegan described what happened as "cruel" and "horrendous" behaviour towards an innocent animal.
Sergeant Jim McGovern told the court that the couple's neighbour attended Carrickmacross Garda Station on 13 May 2025 to report the theft of her pet cat.
She said the cat had been left in the garden of their home that morning, but that they noticed it wasn't there when they returned home.
She checked CCTV footage, and it showed that at about 9.50am, her neighbour Patrick Connolly had lifted the cat from his patio.
Sgt McGovern said the CCTV showed Mr Connolly shaking out a white bag in his back garden, and later leaving his property with the bag while in the company of his wife, Bernie Connolly.
The footage showed the couple returning home a short time later, "empty handed".
The sergeant said further CCTV footage was downloaded following a search (on foot of a warrant) at the Connollys’ home.
In this, the pet cat was seen being trapped while in the kitchen.
Patrick Connolly was seen removing the cat from the counter and placing it into a white bag, which Bernie Connolly tied with a string.
They subsequently leave the property with the bag before returning a short time later.
The court was told that when first spoken to by gardaí, the Connollys denied any knowledge of the cat.
But they made admissions after the CCTV footage was downloaded, and said they left the cat at Creevy lake, a few miles outside Carrickmacross.
Sgt McGovern said that was where the owners found it three days later, while "in a very poor condition but alive".
Sara Brennan BL, for Patrick and Bernie Connolly, told the court that the people involved were next door neighbours.
She said the cat had been coming into the Connolly's garden on a regular basis and defecating in it.
The court heard that Bernie Connolly had given up work a number of years earlier to take care of her grandchildren, and that the children had been coming into the house on a number of occasions with cat dirt on their shoes and hands.
Sara Brennan BL said that the couple had approached their neighbours a few times to ask if they could keep the cat out of their garden, but this was to no avail.
She said that it was accepted her clients did something that was "exceptionally foolish".
When Ms Brennan said the Connolly’s wholeheartedly recognised that they shouldn’t have done what they did, Judge Finnegan remarked that they didn’t recognise it too well when they initially denied it.
This was accepted by the lawyer, but she said her clients might have panicked as they realised how serious the incident was.
They were now offering a very fulsome apology, however, and they also had €1,000 with them to offer in compensation for their actions, Ms Brennan stressed.
Pointing to their ages, she said they were both retired, and that Patrick Connolly would have been Garda vetted for his role as a lollipop man in the six years before he retired.
They were "a good, respectable couple", she said.
But Judge Finnegan said they were not respectable if they could do what they did to an innocent animal
Judge Finnegan ordered that the Connollys be kept in the court’s prison cell while he reflected on the matter, telling them directly: "You can see how you feel being trapped for a while."
Sentencing the couple, Judge Finnegan said he could not see a way of avoiding a prison sentence.
He said the accused had taken an innocent animal, put it in a bag and then threw it at the side of a lake before "leaving it to die".
Their lawyer again appealed to the court to consider the defendants' ages and their respectable lifestyle prior to this.
She appreciated that the offence was serious, but argued that it was "entirely an aberration".
What they did was serious, she said, but they were "clearly not thinking straight" at the time.
Judge Raymond Finnegan said what the Connollys did was "absolutely out of order".
He said it was "cruel" and "horrendous" and that to do that to an innocent animal who was doing what animals do in every garden, was "unspeakable".
He said the defendants might have been unfortunate in that they had come before "an animal lover".
However, Judge Finnegan said he would not countenance their behaviour, and he sentenced both Patrick and Bernie Connolly to three months imprisonment on the animal cruelty charge, with the theft charge taken into consideration.
They were granted leave for appeal, with recongnisances for appeal of the sentence set at €250 in cash in both instances.
