‘I was almost bowled over in agony’
“There was a quick spray into my face. In the first millisecond nothing happened. Then, I was almost bowled over in agony. It hit the back of my eyes. It’s like very strong shampoo going into your eyes, but magnified a thousand times. It was stinging. My initial reaction was to curl up,” said the detective garda. When he tried to open his eyes, it made the pain worse.
Seamus, who is based in Sligo town, volunteered to be sprayed with so-called pepper spray, which is used by police forces throughout Europe and North America to deal with violent situations.
The spray, based on natural ingredients, but produced synthetically, can incapacitate a person for 30 minutes.
Seamus and all 10,000-plus rank-and-file officers attached to the Garda Representative Association (GRA) are calling for gardaí on operational duty to be armed with the spray to defend themselves and other people in an increasingly violent society.
“If we are going to use them on other people, I thought we should experience it ourselves and know what it’s like,” said the garda.
Seamus is not a fresh-faced probationer just out of Templemore College. Aged 48, with 28 years in the job, he’s served on the beat, in the drugs unit and in the detective unit. He’s authorised to carry a firearm. On top of that he’s strong, weighing in at 19 stone and is a former second row rugby player.
“The spray is painful and it lasts about 30 minutes. But then it cleared itself. For 30 minutes, I washed and rinsed my eyes with cold water, then dried them,” he explained.
After that he felt a tingling on his forehead, his lips felt as if he had bitten into raw chillies and his eyes were a bit puffy.
“There was nothing after that. I suffer from a chest infection, but there was no effect on me,” he said.
Seamus said you would not need to be hospitalised after being sprayed, which could happen if a garda used a truncheon on you.
“If you use a baton the person could be hospitalised afterwards, you won’t be with this (spray),” he said.
He said Sligo town, with a population of 35,000, could be a ‘very active’ place. Like towns all over the country, gardaí have to deal with serious public order incidents regularly.
“I know of one young female garda who recently had her nose broken from a guy who hit her. She had to get an operation as a result. I know of fellas being bitten, of guards who are off duty and attacked by guys who know they’re guards and hammer them. There’s also quite a drug culture here, there have been a couple of gangland killings.”
He said the sprays would be ideal in a range of situations, mainly violent.
“If the guy has a knife, if you have to make an arrest, or possibly if someone’s life is in danger, but didn’t warrant drawing your gun, that would be situations where to use it. We’re not talking about spraying willy-nilly.”
