Tag Archives: gardai

AN Irish Army Bomb Disposal Unit are making their way to Shannon, following the discovery of a suspicious device this morning. The suspicious device was found in a skip at the Clean Ireland Recycling premises in Smithstown. The area has been sealed off by Gardai.  

CLARE’S county dog warden cannot go into parts of Ennis without garda protection, he has revealed. Frankie Coote, whose house was targeted by an unknown hatchet-wielding assailant just last week, says there are areas of the county capital where it is unsafe for him to do his job. “There are areas in Ennis, I won’t name them, that I can’t go in without the gardaí. I said to one woman who made a complaint [about the treatment of animals] that I can’t go down because they will wreck my house. She just said ‘I don’t give two fs about your house, I’m just worried about the animals’.” He continued, “Three or four times me and the girl working with me here have had to get a garda to go with us. It’s a pity; we are just trying to do our job. It might just be something small like checking a licence or trying to find a stolen dog. It’s …

GARDAI are investigating an armed robbery which occurred in Connolly on Thursday afternoon. A man armed with a knife entered a shop from which he took a sum of cash and cigarettes. A car was subsequently stolen from a local house and it was recovered on Friday. It is thought the incident may be linked to an attempted robbery at an Ennis petrol station on the same day.

THERE was some hysteria in Shannon last week, after posts appeared on Facebook about men trying to lure children into a white van. However, following an investigation, gardaí say there was no risk of child abuse, while they have urged people to come to them when they have concerns. Sergeant Seamus Mulligan said that whenever there is suspicious activity, people need to contact gardaí, rather than getting onto social media. “They might want to vent on social media but they should also contact the gardaí.” He said that the van that was the subject of the social media posts in Shannon was subsequently met by gardaí in Limerick, who became satisfied that there had been no risk to children. The van was taken in, due to concerns about road traffic offences, but it is not expected that the matter will come before the courts. Earlier this year, Sergeant Mulligan addressed a meeting of Shannon Municipal District councillors, at which he …

UNBEARABLE pressure is being inflicted on young people once they fall into the debt of Ennis drug dealers, a local mother has warned. She once worked in two jobs to clear her own son’s debt and was subjected to numerous threats, with warnings that her young daughter could be a target. “They threatened me, they threatened my son, they threatened my [other, younger] child. They told me that if I had sexual relations with them they would take money off the debt. I’d say I have been threatened at least 40 times. At least. It’s been on my doorstep, up the town, if your son doesn’t pay up, this is what’s going to happen.” At its worst stage her son’s debts reached €2,000, with cannabis very much his drug of choice. “It’s awful stress, oh my God, it’s awful. Even talking about it now, I’m not living through it now, but Jesus it was so hard, working two jobs paying …

THE death of a cyclist whose body was found on the old Crusheen-Gort road (R458) this evening was not caused by a crash, Gardai believe. It is thought that the man, who was in his 50s, may have died due to a medical complication, and the cause of death may become apparent after a post mortem takes place on Tuesday. The man was part of a group who were on a long distance cycle in support of charity. They were due to conclude the day’s cycling in Gort and spend the night there. The man’s body was discovered a couple of kilometres to the Clare side of the county boundary with Galway. The road was closed for a period of time after the body was found but has since reopened.

THE Rome-Chicago flight which diverted to Shannon yesterday is set to continue onwards at 3pm this afternoon, after no explosive device was found. Emergency services spent hours searching luggage on the runway at Shannon yesterday afternoon, while passengers were also forced to spend long spells outside, having disembarked from the aircraft. It is understood that messages were written on a mirror and a door in the toilets of the plane, warning of a bomb. Once the passengers were taken off, sniffer dogs searched the luggage while a subsequent visual search was carried out. Samples of handwriting were also taken from those on board. Passengers spent the night in local hotels and it is understood many of them missed onward connections as a result of the delay. Owen Ryan

Members of the Emergency Response Unit, Regional Armed Support Unit and Garda Air Support Unit as well as the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Unit were involved in a simulated anti-terrorism training exercise at Shannon Airport this Tuesday morning. The staged event saw the airport being stormed by an armed group, calling themselves the Doomsday Cult. During the simulated attack, the terrorist group fired blank rounds of ammunition at trainee gardaí who were acting as passengers in the departures lounge of Shannon Airport. As the exercise progressed it triggered a coordinated armed response from members of the Garda Air Support Unit, the Defence Forces, the naval service, the air corps, the EOD, and Shannon Airport personnel . The situation then moved to a hostage negotiation scenario where a tactical team was deployed to reason with the terrorist group and recover the hostages. The exercise was staged at Shannon Airport between 2.30pm and 4pm on Tuesday and involved upwards of 130 individuals. The …