Suspected dissident republicans held over family’s armed hostage ordeal

SUSPECTED dissident Republicans were in custody last night after a millionaire businessman was tied up and pistol-whipped, while his pregnant wife was held at gunpoint in what gardaí believe was an extortion bid attempt.

Two armed men burst into the couple's €600,000 house in the exclusive Cork suburb of Mount Oval, Rochestown, on Monday night. They held six-month pregnant Katie O'Donovan at gunpoint, while her four children Rebecca, Sam, Sophie and Jody aged two to six, lay asleep.

The men then waited for her husband, Gary, who owns a chain of off-licences and a pub, to return home from work. When he arrived they bundled him inside. A struggle ensued and he was smashed over the head with a revolver.

He was tied up and gagged and kept under armed guard in a downstairs room. Mrs O'Donovan, daughter of prominent auctioneer Dominic Daly, was held upstairs.

A third member of the gang called to the house during the kidnap ordeal but left a short time later.

It is believed the raiders were planning to hold Mrs O'Donovan and her children hostage until yesterday morning while they forced her husband to get the weekend takings from his off-licences.

However, Mr O'Donovan was able to free himself just before 3am when the captor holding him at gunpoint, a Dundalk man, fell asleep. Mr O'Donovan escaped from the house and ran barefoot to a neighbour's house to raise the alarm.

Mr O'Donovan contacted his brother-in-law, Sergeant Gary McPolin, who summoned detectives.

Although unarmed, Sgt McPolin tackled one of the raiders as he fled the house just before 3.30am. Detectives helped to arrest a second man at the scene. They recovered a revolver and stun gun.

One of the two men arrested at Mount Oval is aged 33 and has an address in Dundalk. The other is a 48-year-old from Belfast.

They were being detained last night under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act at the Bridewell and Togher garda stations.

The third man was caught yesterday afternoon in Dublin. He was taken to Mayfield garda station.

Detectives believe he is a senior figure in the provisional movement in the Dundalk area who was centrally involved in racketeering and cigarette robberies.

He played a role in financing the IRA in North Louth and South Armagh.

Gardaí believe he was the victim a punishment shooting after an IRA weapon which he was supposed to control, was used in an attack. He was also suspected of keeping some of the proceeds of one cigarette robbery.

He was arrested for questioning after more than £1 million worth of cigarettes were stolen from a train in Dunleer in Co Louth in July 1999.

At this stage gardaí believe the men's actions were for their own personal gain and not part of any IRA-sanctioned operation.

Mr O'Donovan was taken to Cork University Hospital yesterday morning where he had 12 stitches inserted in a head wound. His wife was seen by a local doctor and although very shaken was not harmed.

The couple's four children miraculously slept through the ordeal.

Neighbours living in the exclusive estate told how they were woken in the middle of the night by screams and shouts as the gardaí apprehended two of the gang members.

Ann Louise French, who lives opposite the O'Donovan's, witnessed the scene from her bedroom window.

"We're still in shock here," she said.

"We're just relieved and thankful that no one was seriously injured."

Another neighbour, Esther Galvin, said the episode was shocking. "It must have been horrendous for them to endure that kind of treatment," she said.

"It's shocking for others in the area that this kind of thing can happen on your doorstep."

Jane O'Sullivan described the scene outside her front door at 3am as "amazing" as the gardaí apprehended two members of the gang.

"It was extremely loud roaring and screaming."