Justice Patrick Durcan (top) and the insignia of the The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Vanla sighs via politics.ie writes:

In today’s Indo (link below) there’s an article on a young 20 year old woman, who going by the story is to say the least marginalised and troubled (drugs, drink etc).

This girl stole €40 from a nun of the Sisters of Mercy, yes, admittedly a not so nice thing to do. She then appears before one Judge Patrick Durcan at Ennis district court and despite a guilty plea is sentenced to 4 months in prison………for stealing €40.

…reportedly the judge said: “we had, in the past, in this country a society where we recognised the tremendous contribution in education, health and charity on the part of the Sisters of Mercy.”

…But that’s not all, I decided to do a little digging on this noble and fair judge, it turns out that Justice Durcan is a Knight of a Catholic Order called the The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem , aka, The Order of the Holy Sepulchre (hit the link and scroll down, Durcan’s having his pic taken with the Apostolic Nuncio, capes and all).

….It has to be asked whether this judge should have excused himself from hearing that case, has his allegiance to a Catholic Order influenced his handing down of a 4 month sentence to a troubled girl for stealing €40 from a Catholic nun?

YOU be the judge  decider

More here: The Order of the Holy Sepulchre, the judge, the nun and the young woman (Politics.ie)

Woman (20) jailed for ‘nasty’ theft of €40 from elderly nun (Independent.ie)

The  Sisters of Mercy , you say?

In Ennis?

The Magdalene Laundries touched women all over Clare, changing hundreds of young lives forever. One such woman was Mary, who claims to have been cornered by a group of [Sisters of Mercy ]nuns in St Joseph’s Hospital in Ennis, stuffed into a car and brought away to a Magdalene Laundry.

‘Bundled off to the laundry by the nuns’ Andrew Hamilton, Clare People, February 12, 2013)
(Thanks Declan)