Axe-man smashes TV in town square

A man was arrested yesterday after he allegedly produced an axe and smashed up a television set in a busy town square.

The incident occurred at lunchtime in O’Connell Square in Ennis, Co Clare.

Gardaí received several calls reporting that the man, believed to be in his late 40s and from the town, was pacing up and down in front of the town’s O’Connell monument with a long-handled axe.

The area was busy with shoppers, as well as dozens of children on their school lunch break.

After a sizeable crowd had gathered, the man is reported to have smashed up a flatscreen television with the axe.

Within minutes several Garda patrol cars arrived at the scene and while some officers moved bystanders away from the area, other gardaí approached the man.

It’s not clear whether the man had the axe in his hands when gardaí arrived, but the tool was seized and the man was arrested for possession of an offensive weapon.

He was taken to Ennis Garda Station, where he was interviewed before being released without charge.

One onlooker said: “All I saw was a man with an axe smashing up a television. He was well dressed and looked very respectable.

“He had a sign or placard too but I couldn’t see what was on it. I wasn’t getting that close.

“He was walking up and down and he must have been waiting for a crowd to gather because that’s when he starting smashing up the TV.

“At least two squad cars arrived with sirens on but he gave the guards no grief at all. They just took him away.”

A short video of gardaí moving in to arrest the man later appeared on Facebook.

Gardaí confirmed that a file on the incident will be prepared and forwarded in due course to the DPP.