BY SHENGAS  MCGLUMPHIE

Two women pensioners attended Omagh County Court yesterday after they were involved in a heated debate over who was paying for tea.

The incident occurred on the 20th July, when both women insisted on paying the £3.60 bill for a pot of tea and two fruit scones. The women, Rose Coyle and Bernie Gallen, both 78 and from Carnteel, got into an unseemly tussle, with threats of pulling and dragging gathering momentum.

Cafe owner Bridie McDuff’s court statement pulled no punches:

“It was tara. I put the bill on their table and a few minutes later all I heard was Rose Coyle shouting, ‘It’s Tuesday. I always pay on a Tuesday. Put it away, put it away. Let me’. She was trying to shove Mrs Gallen’s purse back into her handbag, and then it all spilt out all over the floor. Jaysus, the smell of Just Musk nearly knocked me out. The PSNI should think about using that stuff instead of tear gas. My eyes are still waterin.”

The argument worsened when Gallen picked up a teaspoon to remonstrate with Coyle, but then promptly put it back down again saying she was a slave to her arthritis and that her knuckles would be the death of her, and then gave a lengthy diagnosis of her piles. Coyle subsequently waved an almond slice in Gallen’s general direction before accidentally knocking over a whole plate of French fancies and cherry bakewells from the counter. Both were left flustered by the episode.

When asked whether she would maintain her friendship with Coyle, Bernie Gallen said,

“Eh?”

Gallen was charged with breach of the peace, and for acting in a threatening manner with a packet of cola cubes. She was fined £10, and banned from talking about her piles anywhere close to Carnteel. Coyle was fined £5 and told that she would not be allowed within a 100 yard radius of an almond slice for the next 12 months.

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