General election candidate jailed for public order breach

A candidate in the Mayo constituency for the 2016 General Election has been sent to jail.
Stephen Manning was sentenced to two months in prison at Castlebar Circuit Court on Thursday last. There, he was unsuccessful in his appeal of a two-month sentence imposed on him last January at Castlebar District Court.
Manning, currently with an address in Ballyhaunis and formerly with addresses in Achill, Ballinrobe and Belcarra, was jailed for a breach of Section 6 of the Public Order Act – which is for the offence of threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour in a public place.
The charge relates to an incident at Castlebar District Court in Castlebar Courthouse on September 2, 2015.
There, Judge Kevin Kilrane effectively abandoned the court amid shouting and jeering from some people present in the court. Members of the Integrity Ireland group, including Mr Manning, applied to place the judge and prosecuting Superintendent Joe McKenna under citizens’ arrest.
The entire court list for the day was adjourned. Mr Manning and another member of Integrity Ireland, Colm Granahan, were in court that day, attempting to initiate criminal prosecutions against Garda Sergeant Peter Hanley and County Registrar Fintan Murphy in relation to earlier incidents at a sitting of the County Registrar’s court in March of 2015.
Mr Manning was sentenced to two months in prison in relation to the September 2015 incident last January, and he appealed that sentence to the Circuit Court.
The appeal was heard before Judge SeΡn Ó Donnabhain, and both sides put forward their case before Judge Ó Donnabhain affirmed the order of the District Court for a two-month prison sentence.

157 votes
Stephen Manning stood as an Independent candidate in the election in February 2016 and received 157 first-preference votes.
He initially was selected to be one of the seven candidates for the 1st Independent process to select candidates to stand for the general election, but was removed from that group in acrimonious circumstances.
Manning is involved with the Integrity Ireland group, whose stated aim is to ‘encourage openness, transparency and justice in the institutions of the Irish State, and serving as a support network for wronged citizens’.