Drama at students’ gangland film shoot as armed gardaí swoop into action

A film shoot took a dramatic real-life twist for students at a Kerry school when armed gardaí swooped on the scene.

Students from Kerry’s Causeway Comprehensive secondary school were filming at a post office in Causeway at around 9pm on Wednesday for a Transition Year (TY) project.

However, a member of the public alerted gardaí to what they thought was an armed robbery taking place. Two armed garda units responded — before standing down when it became apparent that the only shooting was of the cinematic variety.

The students had asked the owners of Hanley’s post office for permission to film there as near to the shop’s closing time as possible to cause minimum disruption.

Unfortunately, nobody thought to notify the gardaí, who promptly responded to the report by a vigilant member of the public — a woman passerby saw what she genuinely believed was a robbery taking place and called the gardaí.

Up to 14 gardaí arrived at the scene, including two armed units, to deal with what was a potentially dangerous incident.

Causeway Comprehensive vice principal, Anne Marie Hassett, said it was an oversight not to contact gardaí: “It was just an oversight and that’s the bottom line and it was unfortunate but I suppose these things happen.”

However, TY co-ordinator, Margaret O’Mahony, admits she can’t quite see the funny side yet. “I’ve been in shock for the last few days because I’m the one who didn’t make the phonecall.”

The Transition Year students had decided to make a movie, with the working title ‘An Eye for an Eye’, based on a student whose father is killed in a gangland-style shooting.

“Most of the filming had been done inside [the post office] but they were shooting the scene of them breaking in and that’s when we were spotted by the passerby,” she explained.

“It shows there are vigilant people and the reaction time by the gardaí was really quick. They were on the scene within minutes. Your first concern is the kids and ‘are they alright?’. Sure they’re all laughing at it now but I’m not there yet,” Ms O’Mahony added.

Shop and post office owner, Emmet Hanly, said about seven balaclava-clad students were in the shop when gardaí arrived. The students were shaken but it was all over within minutes.

Gardaí says people should not be put off reporting such incidents — and have also appealed to events organisers and budding Spielbergs to stay in touch with gardaí to prevent similar incidents happening again.

Inspector Liam Wallace of Listowel Garda Station said a member of the public who passed the shop last night, genuinely believed that a robbery was taking place. He said the response of the gardaí was “commensurate with the report we received”.

“You are talking about armed units from both Listowel and Tralee and uniformed gardaí from both Ardfert and Listowel,” Insp Wallace said on Radio Kerry.