A retired couple who captured their neighbour’s cat and tied it in a bag, before leaving it at a lake a few miles away, were jailed for three months for what a judge described as “cruel” and “horrendous” behaviour.
Patrick Connolly (67) and Bernie Connolly (64) of Alderwood, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan pleaded guilty at Monaghan District Court to engaging in an act of animal cruelty at their home on May 13th of last year. Both had also pleaded to stealing the female cat on the same occasion, although Patrick Connolly had already received an adult caution for this offence.
Sgt Jim McGovern said Agnieszka Krajewska had attended Carrickmacross Garda station on Tuesday, May 13th, 2025, to report the theft of her pet cat.
She checked CCTV footage, and it showed that at about 9.50am, her neighbour Patrick Connolly had lifted the cat from his patio. McGovern said the CCTV showed 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. The footage showed the couple returning home a short time later, “empty-handed”.
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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 left the property with the bag before returning a short time later.
The court was told that the Connollys first denied any knowledge of the cat but made admissions after the CCTV footage was downloaded. They admitted they left the cat at Creevy Lake, outside Carrickmacross. The cat was found three days later, while “in a very poor condition but alive”.
Lawyer Sara Brennan said the people involved in this case were next-door neighbours. The cat had been coming into the Connollys’ garden on a regular basis and defecating in it. Their grandchildren had been coming into the house on numerous occasions with cat dirt on their shoes and hands.
The Connollys had approached their neighbours a few times to ask if they could try to keep the cat out of their garden, but this was to no avail. Tempers had reached a peak, and it was accepted her clients did something that was “exceptionally foolish”.
They were now offering a very fulsome apology, however, and they also had €1,000 with them to offer in compensation for their actions, Brennan stressed.
Patrick Connolly was previously employed as a lollipop man for six years before he retired. They have three adult children and seven grandchildren, all of whom were doing well, and they were “a good, respectable couple”.
Judge Raymond Finnegan said the couple were not respectable if they could do what they did to an innocent animal.
Deferring the matter until the end of the hearing, the judge also ordered the Connollys be kept in the court’s prison cell in the meantime, telling them directly: “You can see how you feel being trapped for a while.”
Finnegan said what the Connollys did was “absolutely out of order”. It was crude, it was horrendous, and to do that to an innocent animal that was “doing what animals do in every garden” was “unspeakable”.
The judge conceded that the defendants might have been somewhat unfortunate in that they were coming before “an animal lover”, but he said he would not countenance their behaviour. On that basis he sentenced both of the Connollys to three months’ imprisonment on the animal cruelty charges.
The theft charges were taken into consideration, while recognisances for appeal of the sentence were set at €250 cash in both instances.
