Shotgun robbery victims will not be forced out of home

A Limerick man who was handcuffed while a sawn-off shotgun was put to his head as his teenage daughter watched in terror said yesterday his family would not move from their period country home.

Two men, a 48-year-old from Dublin and a 41-year-old from Cork, are being held at Henry St and Bruff garda stations under Section 50 of the Offences Against the State Act, and gardaí have mounted a nationwide search for two others in connection with the attack on Gerry and Anne Garvey and their four teenage children on Monday night.

“We are not going to let this spoil our lives,” said Mr Garvey, 51, from the family home in Pallasgreen. “We love where we’re living and we’re going to continue living there. I’m back at work today and the kids are back to school. We’ll slowly but surely rebuild our lives.”

His 16-year-old daughter was forced to kneel by her father as one of the masked raiders held a gun to his head. Her hands were bound and another raider stood over her with a sledgehammer.

Mrs Garvey was forced to open a safe and hand over a sum of money to the raiders before they left the house.

“It is our intention is to follow it up over the coming week, probably with a little bit of counselling, and have some back-up help, particularly with the kids, to help them cope with the whole thing,” said Mr Garvey. “I think the fact that arrests have been made very quickly is reassuring.”

Mr Garvey said it was important that the garda station in Pallasgreen, which is a few hundred yards from their home, is kept open.

“We have great neighbours and the fact we are living in close proximity to the local garda station is good,” he said. “It reinforces the necessity to have small rural garda stations manned because that was a significant feature in this case.

“The alarm was raised very, very quickly. The security system worked exceptionally well and the gardaí arrived in huge numbers very quickly, including the local guards, adjoining stations, followed by the [armed] Regional Response Unit from Limerick.”

The raiders burst into the house at 9.40pm and Mrs Garvey got out an alert phone call at 9.44pm.

Mrs Garvey said that once the gang threatened to shoot her husband and children, she did not hesitate in giving them cash from a safe in the house.

An hour and 15 minutes after the raid, two men were arrested by traffic gardaí near Buttevant, Co Cork.