'Did I do the right thing?': Cork garda questions tactics when family were held under armed siege

Lack of training can lead to serious injury and death, Garda Representative Association’s annual conference hears

Garda Tony Golden was killed in the line of duty at just 36 years of age while attending to a domestic violence complaint in Omeath, Co Louth, on October 11, 2015.

A garda who was shot at while evacuating a family from a house under armed siege in Cork said that gardaí do not have adequate training to deal with such incidents.

Cork Detective Padraig Harrington called for tactical firearms training for all armed gardaí at the Garda Representative Association’s annual conference.

“Back in 2014, I went to an incident in Belgooly [Co Cork] with a number of guards from Cork and we were waiting for the armed support unit to be mobilised and there were five shots fired at us and we had to evacuate the family.

“And tactically, was that the right thing to do? I still don’t know. It was a successful operation but I still don’t know whether we did the right thing.” 

Two people were rescued from the house and an 18-year-old male was subsequently arrested, and a loaded shotgun was recovered. No one was injured in the incident.

Mr Harrington said that a lack of training can lead to serious injury and death.

The late Garda Tony Golden, 36, a father of three, was shot dead when he responded to a domestic violence complaint in Omeath, Co Louth, in 2015.

Garda Golden, who was unarmed, had accompanied Siobhan Philips, 23, to the house she shared with her physically abusive partner Adrian who then shot him five times. He had previously been given a three-year suspended sentence on firearms charges in the North.

Tactical training

Mr Harrington said tactical training would alert people not to go into such situations unless someone’s life was under threat.

“There is risk out there. With the expansion of the armed support unit the risk is diminished, compared back to in 2013 when they weren’t available to us, they had to be called in and the nearest unit was Limerick, there were not enough lads in Cork.

“It took them a number of hours to get mobilised so we were down there about two hours before they arrived.” 

“The vast majority” of armed gardaí in Cork city and across the country are not tactically trained, Mr Harrington, GRA representative for the Cork City Division, said.

Although Garda Armed Support Units have tactical firearms training, other gardaí like detectives and drug squad gardaí carry guns but have very limited training, Mr Harrington said.

“All we get is a firearms course and it’s normally one week long. You get qualified once and get recertified. All we are looking for is that there is tactical training, physical training so that if you come on a situation you know how to deal with it, so it’s not guesswork.” 

An increase in armed incidents urgently necessitates such training, he said.

Recertification involves target practice twice a year for two live fires and a Firearms Training Simulator (FATS) session once a year.

“Once you have those three, that’s all the training you require to get your gun licence again for next year.”

The only tactics training is a simulator with no live tactical training, he said. And simulator practice is only being rolled out “slowly” this year.