Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE LORD MAYOR of Dublin has added his voice to the growing number of authority figures who have spoken out about events surrounding the funeral of Real IRA member Alan Ryan at the weekend.
Ryan was shot dead in Clongriffin in Dublin 13 last Monday afternoon. His funeral on Saturday was attended by mourners wearing paramilitary clothing and balaclavas who marched alongside his coffin, which was draped in a tricolour.
A number of shots were fired into the air as Ryan’s coffin was removed from his house to a nearby church and armed Gardaí were reported to have been at the scene.
“This type of display is wholly unacceptable and belongs firmly in the past on this island,” Lord Mayor of Dublin Naoise Ó Muirí said this afternoon.
“This incident had the potential to erupt into a serious public order problem,” he said.
Ó Muirí praised the actions of the Gardaí who were present at the funeral on Saturday for ensuring the situation was “contained”.
Gardaí at Clontarf have established an incident room to investigate the firing of a number of shots into the air at the funeral.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
So if I want to represent my country in the Olympics shooting an airgun that can’t penetrate a pair of trousers, I have to fill out a 9-page form, give up my right to medical privacy, allow inspections of my home, provide two character witnesses, and a dozen other such things – and still endure being explicitly described in the press as just looking for an opportunity to commit a Dunblane-type atrocity by everyone from the animal rights nutters to our elected TDs and Senators; but if I was to put on a balaclava and shoot an illegally held firearm in the air miles from any authorised range in a hugely unsafe manner and breaking a dozen or so firearms laws – to say nothing of the other laws I’d be breaking – the Gardai will just stand there and do nothing?
Why. The. Heck. Do. We. Even. Bother?
Mark I couldn’t agree with you more. We’re the Garda unwilling or unable to act at this blatant breach of the law. If a licensed firearms holder acted in this fashion, you would be dam sure to be arrested and charged!
Garda vs Gun. Gun wins every time!
So, ye wanted the guards to go into an Illegal Army who are carrying guns and disarm them? Are these the same public servants whose salary ye want cut?…. Gardai would have been killed last Sat if they intervened!
Isn’t that what the ERU are for?
They’re fast enough to take firearms off of licenced holders that they even suspect of breaking the law…
Stopping the paramilitaries with their guns could have led to violence at the funeral or it would have at least massively increased tensions.
Guards are damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
So the ERU are a waste of taxpayers money then, is that what you’re saying?
Or are you saying that if the gang’s big enough, the Gardai won’t oppose them in public?
/disgusted
@mark the guards handled it well.the eru didnt move in as it could have created a bloodbath & a lot of violence.imagine if that scenario had of taken place at a funeral.the worlds media would have had a fieldday & it would be in every newspaper around the world.use your head.
Good man David , so, if they are too violent and dangerous we leave them off . Quite literally you are allowing make up their own rules . You know sometimes in life you have do to do the right thing to show backbone and to give credance the concept that you elected officals and the state have some moral authority to govern ,but predictably its yet another example of sectoral interests ( this time criminal dressed up as activists ) running rough shod over the cowardly governement
This is just another of those situations where the armchair policing experts sit up and lecture the police on how they should do their job. This was not an easily predictable or controllable incident. A group of masked, potential terrorists decided to use the protection of the funeral and of the civilian crowd to assert themselves in a very dangerous and provocative way. Perhaps the best approach wasn’t to have the ERU move in at the graveside, disrupt the funeral, disarm and arrest the masked men standing amongst the family and hundreds of other civilians. It’s been said that the crowd closed in around the scene to prevent the guards from getting near. Just maybe, the best judges of how to deal with it are the guards and not the lay readers of news stories.
I’m looking at mine right here Dario.
It’s nine pages. The prepopulated renewal is eight.
It still requires you to have good reason to have a firearm.
And two character references.
And mandatory membership of a club and range.
And mandatory secure storage.
And mandatory access to my medical records granted to the AGS along with it being my responsibility to notify them if I had any medical conditions that might be of relevance (and it’s illegal if I don’t, and I’m not a qualified doctor, so you go do the math as to how fair that is).
And a photo required which doesn’t go on the licence, but just into the AGS records so I can be identified.
And all the address and storage details – which wouldn’t be so bad if we hadn’t a long history of these forms being lost, turning up in dumps or whereever.
Or, you know, just show up in a public place with an unlicenced – in fact unlicencable – firearm and discharge it in public while in paramilitary outfits. And then get a ticket off AGS announcing that you’d broken the agreement they had with the people running the funeral.
I’ve a proposed agreement for the next time – follow the law or get arrested and put in jail like any of the rest of us would be.
What would you suggest they do? And I’ll give u a clue to make it easy for ya, what do the PSNI do in similar circumstances? Remembering the experience they have dealing with this type or funeral.
@ mark downs. I wonder who you hang around with if arm chair policing is a pastime . It not up to us to decide how to approach the issue operationally but as citizens we have the right to expect the government to treat citizens equally and not allow known criminals discharge live rounds on broad daylight . That is their duty plain and simple .
These people are a joke, they belong in a different time. Kids playing dress up, boys pretending to be men, it’s just laughable.
Do you not understand? This is Marketing. The business of extracting Money from publicans and shopkeepers and drug dealers only works when these people are afraid of you. After the funeral of this thug his so called business colleagues might have been run off when they go to collect the regular payments. So the military display is a public statement to tell their victims that they are still very much in business.
This is a traditional and longstanding tradition among our Republican heroes in addition to guns and bomb making on hire. The old Nation Once Again brigade have to keep it going and this is easy or soft money. You only have to look at the bellies of these soldiers to know their not exactly campaign fit.
I do believe the Gardai should have used sniper at the funeral as these thugs were a major risk to life in a suburban community.
The people I feel really sorry for are the neighbours who have to live beside these animals.
They should have been arrested. End of story.
It’d make you wonder about political connections and all that.
If u take off their balaclava’s, they start to burn up! Some kind of vampire thing….
It disgusts me the way these idiots have misappropriated our flag
Gardai acted immediately to prevent a small group from the Ballyhea bank bondholder protest from distributing leaflets yesterday at Croke Park because of a ‘health & safety’ issue yet stood by and watched as illegal firearms were discharged in public by people wearing paramilitary uniforms!
Now we know what scares the establishment most…
and do you think these lads would happily hand over these weapons to gardai? of course not, at the very best it would have led to a mass brawl at the worst a shoot out which could possibly lead to fatalities. You are deluded if you are comparing leaflets to firearms
So call in the ERU and shoot them instead of trying to arrest them for discharging illegally held firearms in a public place.
Or do we only do that for cases like Abbeylara?
Are you having a laugh? So armed bully-boys are to be ignored and left to go about their merry way in the interests of avoiding confrontation!
To the Journal:
There is an idiot using the name ‘Tim Jackson’ posting here who is worthy of being kicked off this site. I’m sure when you go to the bother of reporting on news events such as above in a serious and worthy manner it is as equally a pain in the ass to yourselves to encounter such stupidity as it is for us commenting.
Keep on topic John Murphy for once.
no you identify those involved, you gather evidence and you prosecute them on a court of law. people on here seem to have been watching too much liam neeson, that’s not the real world! the guards cannot win, they rush into a confrontation starting s riot and their idiots, they stand back and contain the incident and they are wrong again. give them a chance
Yeah right paidi! So one of these unarmed Guards (which Garda management in their wisdom sent to ‘contain’ this situation) strolls up to a balaclava wearing thug and asks him to take it off so he can identify him; or maybe, just maybe, self same thug has parked his family car at the gates of the cemetery. Ah now come on…
It’s not a question of whether they would have “happily handed over” their weapons.
Heaven forbid that armed robbers should rob a bank!
I have a tiny dick and like to hide behind a scarf and sunglasses while intimidating women and children.
These kind of scenes fly in the face of all the progress made in Northern Ireland over the last two decades. :-(
We should not celebrate those who wished to see the Troubles continue.
It’s called having a different opinion.
Tim, we live in a democracy and as such everyone, including you, is entitled to their own opinion. In a democracy we are free to air that opinion openly without fear of violent recrimination.
The IRA however did not respect the opinions of those they killed, whether they were nationalists or unionists.
Does any army care about the opinions of those they murder ?
Brian, the IRA were never given a democratic mandate by the nationalists of NI to fight on their behalf. As such they are not an army.
Democratic mandate means feck all when you are dead
You’re dead right eoin wallace, why don’t the government invite these dissidents into a meeting to agree a new non-violent way forward. Find out exactly what they want, why they left the provos, why sinnfein is not acceptable to them or the government (agreement here already). Remember when the British Government wouldn’t talk to terrorists or crimnals, learning from the past eludes most of us especially politicians and crimnals, they both ignore their failures and repeat them. THE GARDAI SHOULD BE SUPPORTED ESPECIALLY BECAUSE THEY ARE USUALLY UNARMED which in my opinion makes them more courageous than the rest of society.
I wonder how many of those that were in white shirts following the coffin are claiming social welfare ..? Most I suspect . Probably the amount of them working is similar to the amount of them that can speak Irish or understand Irish history .
The Independent reports that the Gardai had spotters and plain clothes officers in the crowd, know exactly who they are and are liaising with the PSNI to make arrests.
This rather than risk a major public disturbance.
That seems acceptable to me as long as they do arrest, charge and imprison.
Good point
So the gardai probably had a good portion of the membership of an illegal organisation”the Real IRA” in one place , dressed up as 1980′s terrorists and didnt face them down, call in the ERU in and pick them all up.
Anyone that has to deal with a out of order nacker in the street knows if you don’t face them down you’ve lost.
what happened to zero tolerance or do we have to wait for a garda “crackdown” for them to enforce the law.
The people who donned these paramilitary uniforms represent terror, murder, extortion, and anti democratic views. Once again the Gardai Siochana have failed in there professional duty. People will debate that the Gardai are unarmed and could not have reacted to this incident. However the Gardai Intelligence Unit were aware of paramilitary style funerals, and should have anticipated this by having members of either the Armed Response Unit or the Emergency Response Unit on stand by to seize and arrest these people who are affiliated with terrorist organisations. This country has just jumped back 20 years of progress.
The complete lack of any common sense in some of these comments would be hilarious if it wasn’t so blindly stupid and dangerous. ERU? Snipers? In the middle of funeral of hundreds? The po po sat tight, recorded the whole thing and will go about lifting people from here on it. Looking for them to rush the RIRA colour party with hundreds of unarmed civilians around is idiotic. Imagine handing the so called dissidents the publicity coup of a mini Bloody Sunday? Dead unarmed mourners caught in crossfire, heavily armed ERU in shoot out etc. Moral panic brigade need to get a grip, the guards knew what they were doing and had the bigger picture in mind, unlike some
Glad to hear that Captain Sensible is on the case, and this is the last time this will ever happen.
I agree ciaran. The correct thing to do would have been to have teams of surveillance units accompanied armed units watch and monitor those wearing the paramilitary uniforms and those with guns. Continue to monitor and wait for those involved to leave and engage them (by force if needs be) in a suitable location where the risk to innocent civilians is minimal.
The one saving grace to this incident is that it has allowed so many of you to turn round and say, “No. This will not stand. It does not represent Ireland.”
I would salute you, but that would seem rather contradictory in the circumstances.
The incident at Donaghmede once again raises serious questions about the competence of Dublin’s senior Garda officers. For the second time in 2 months, the public have seen their Garda force reduced to a force of redundant, powerless bystanders in the face of displays of sheer lawlessness on the streets.
A group of people entered a heavily-policed Dublin suburb with loaded firearms and discharged them at will. They then marched to a funeral in military attire before leaving the suburb – and probably the jurisdiction – still in possession of those same firearms without any intervention by Gardai! The reason Gardai didn’t intervene was because these people were deemed to be dangerous and there was the potential for a riot situation. Is it not the job of a Police force to prepare for and deal with such eventualities? The ordinary Gardai and law-abiding residents in this area must have felt so helpless, angry and intimidated as they watched control of the streets being surrendered to these gangland thugs for the day.
The Swedish House Mafia event violence, the complete absence of a Garda presence on the streets of the capital, and now this new scandal, have exposed the ineptitude and incompetence of senior Garda management in Dublin.
Maybe the Gardai should take their lead from the PSNI who have been dealing with these type of funerals for years. Would you agree?
Tim Jackson…would say it to there faces if we could actually see their ugly mugs!!!!! covering themselves so as not to be identified,who are the cowards did you say?????? total disgrace
Let them bury their dead. No matter what you think of them, surely you would let them have a dignified funeral.
Absolutely they have a right to bury their dead in peace, the other people who live there have a right not to have gun fired outside of their homes by tiny little bully boys.
Last I checked, having a funeral wasn’t listed in the Firearms act as a derogation against carrying an illegal firearm and discharging it in public.
there was nothing dignified about that spectacle.
nothing dignified about that type of carry on. criminals and terrorists.
Wheres the dignity in a fat man in fancy dress playing toy soldiers firing a gun over a corpse?!
Agree Archibald.
I wouldn’t care about the opinion of these hidden cowards voting everyone down. They would be the last to mouth off to their faces!
says the faceless tim Jackson
@Tim.
You’re a fairly mighty keyboard warrior yourself.
And it seems from a lot of your posts, that the longer you support Sinn Fein, the more radical you get. Well, the more radical your posts get.
And you say the Mormon right wingers have been brain washed.
And Tim,
I would gladly mouth of to them, had they not chosen to cowardly hide their faces behind scarves and glasses, in a pseudo military style. As you do behind your faceless avatar.
I must congratulate you on your Trolling though, however repetitive it may be, at least it’s consistent.
Actually Stephen, it seems Sinn Fein have spoken out against this too:
http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/24385
So it looks like Tim is out on a limb here.
I have to go and wash now, I’ve been on the Sinn Fein website.
@ Damocles.
Thanks for that. I wasn’t aware that Sinn Fein had condemned the actions.
Perhaps Tim has migrated to a Sinn Fein splinter group? As this was a “Real” I.R.A. funeral?
I feel bad that they are already leading a life of utter misguidedness.
Tim the never ending SF promoter. This is my face..
There bomb victims weren’t exactly afforded much dignity- bits of bodies scattered hundreds of yards apart.
Ryan and his cohorts represent the dross of Irish society. no great loss.
There’s been at least two paramilitary funerals in the north this year and one on YouTube and another one from last year as well. The psni are present and don’t go anywhere near them. They may see it as another one off the street but going in could result in a gun battle in a busy street. Emotions are high already and just look at the England riots all started over polices actions ! The gardai done the right thing.
They have no mandate and are only a bunch of muppets playing soldier. They all deserve 10-20 in a cell just for being that thick to be sucked into the organization never mind discharging guns.
He has no right having the tri colour on his coffin.
This is bad
The comments in this thread are bad
I need a drink…
The cops are dressing up in their uniforms for years and nothing about that….why don’t the journal write an artical about what our government are spraying out of our aeroplanes and what their are putting in to our drinking water..please
Agree.
What?
A chemtrail nut,they don’t exist,have a look at the Fr Ted episode,Dreams Vs Reality,you might learn something
maybe if they have no roadtax on the guns
the cops would have confiscated them
I’d say all the nordies are wondering what’s the big deal about
Haha true, it always seems unfitting when this carry on happens in the republics capital! And to be honest I’d say not one of them have ever encountered a Brit soldier unless they were doing a spot of shopping in sainburys after crossing the border! Leave the norths tradition in the north! Next they’ll be painting the murals on the ends of houses!!! Clowns.
When all else fails, make a joke about the north. Mature.
Having men that were in the same organisation as you march alongside your coffin is a northern tradition? It didn’t happen in the 26 counties in the early 20th century?
WHAT? i was making no joke about the north, my clown reference was to the Dubs! Where have you been the past 40years??? Gun salutes was the norm up north i live 2mins away form the border.
Dissedent republican’s, terrorists, freedom fighters, armies, these are just names given by one side or another. The original IRB/IRA were branded terrorists by the British till the won a Republic. The criminals who today try associate themselves with the men and women of the past should be ashamed. A comment of too many people watching Liam Nesson is quite apt. Today you fight politically and econmically not with guns. The Gardai are a lot smarter than most people give them credit for. There is a bigger picture and those criminals will be caught. It’s better to catch them involved in more serious and dangerous crimes and gather intelligence to identify major players in irelands organised crime. Its madness to ask a frontline garda who earns the equivilant of the lowest paid in society to disarm and arrest some low level criminals surrounded by sympathetic uneducated people who would only have loved to get in a row with the gardai. Each class responds differently to incidents and the lower uneducated usually respond with violence. People need to wise-up, cop-on and grow up. We as a country need to stop fighting eachother n deal with actual serious problems like our economy n loss of soverignty to europe and the germans
I do genuinely wonder how his family feels about his funeral being highjacked in this manner. Are they of the same “political” persuasions or were they horrified like the rest of the community?
@ Christine Bohan … The Journal should really make an inception and ban this ‘Tim Jackson’ moron. His posts are offensive and threatening. He makes no contribution other than to insult and make inferences of violence being inflicted on anyone whose opinion he dislikes.
I find this comment offensive and would like to ask that “Mumble Mumble” be banned too, for attempting to muzzle free speech – a clear assault on basic democratic values. Also, I find Tim’s comments easy to ignore most of the time.
Make a what? An “inception”?
Ah, the west-brit anti-Republican contingent is out in force I see
Kerron, very few comments here are west-brit or anti-republican. Personal views on republicanism or loyalism is irrelivant to majority of the comments here about crime or criminals associating themselves with republicanism. Criminals use republicanism as a front to justify their crimes. They actually do nothing to premote the idea of a free state or united ireland or anything else that a true republican believes in.
Men in masks with guns don’t have a monopoly on republicism. You can support the idea of a united Ireland without quasi armies populated by criminals. An overwhelming majority of people backed the peace process. About time these people respect democracy, a cornerstone of a true Republic.
Or maybe just the educated & intelligent people Kerron.
West Brit?? Isn’t that Wales??
That gardai clearly chose to ignore this incident, it’s happens at a lot of IRA funerals, I don’t know why it’s become a “shock” to so many.
It’s pseudo shock at the ongoing collapse of the Irish Republic.
The Gardaí in north city Dublin had much greater priorities to concentrate on at the weekend – such as preventing people from peacefully handing out leaflets protesting against the ECB Diktat:
http://www.broadsheet.ie/2012/09/10/glock-paper-scissors/
Disgraceful.
Perhaps theres’s a lesson for the rest of us here?
The Guards are basically just revenue collectors. Sure as long as the boyos with the guns had the van taxed they were safe enough.
Good man Tommy that’s on of the most hilarious thing I’ve ever heard I’m surprised no one has said it already. Classic comedy
Guarantee if the ERU had of sent in 15 fully equipped men dressed to impress with all the body armour they have in supply, helmet, balaclavas!! brandishing semi automatic rifles and had done it loud and quick the boys wouldn’t of let one shot off!!! Way too much hassle for them…and caught on the hop too, ELEMENT OF SURPRISE!
@Ben..some moron would have loosed of a shot…Garda did what they had to do…Wait and see..Softly softly catcheee monkey
Yes they did a fantastic job, but if a fairly big fella came up to me pointing a rifle at my face dressed in black shouting put your F€@King water pistol down…I’d appropriately soil myself, remember they haven’t been doing this all there lives! Try living near the border bud! Or in west Belfast or Derry…fight fire with fire, if it had of been organised right and in large numbers it would have worked, by the way no place for a ordinary An Gardai Siochana either!
Ben mc loughlin for Garda Commissioner Vote Number 1
Ah only kidding
I agree with you Ben fight fire with fire but not when tow risk to innocent civilians is too great. It would be far too easy for one of them Muppets to let off a stray shot and have a civilian killed. The RIRA would have a field day with the publicity saying the Gardai had stormed a funeral and killed an innocent mourner
Great tattoos mate.
There are two ways of dealing with that type of situation
1) intelligent, well thought through, and appropriate for the best outcome at the actual time and place of the event,
2)politicians go in a rant to attempt to demonise those involved, this didn’t provide any solution in the past and will not now, pity that politicians are not capable formulating an intelligent response , as for comment writers on this thread the majority seem only to be able to repeat the rants of their lords and masters. Third reich fascism comes to mind.
@Mark..do you mean the same .22 calibre weapons that were the weapon of choice for Mosaid assassins?
Mossad :-/
If the journal are prepared to let the likes of Tim Jackson spout vile obscenities, then I think the rest of us who engage in proper dignified debates, should boycott the site.
Rodrigo, You can’t let them win.
Hi Rodrigo, just to be clear: all users have to follow the comments policy for the site and any comments which break the guidelines are removed. We’ve removed a number of comments from this thread already.
Thanks Christine.
I commented in a similar vein up the page. The problem here, well as I see it, is that certain comments are designed to take the piss rather than infringe specifics of the comments policy. We all here may inadvertently post wrong information, overshoot the runway in using bad language, or put your employers in danger of legal action and have comments removed that are non the less genuine in intent. ‘Tim Jackson’ is however, neither offensive in the literal sense or presenting a threat to your employers regarding legal liability. He is just a pain in the arse that has nothing useful to say, is treating genuine comments with contempt and is in a word ‘trolling’.
I cannot trust anyone who shows up in public with a face covered up. If your cause is true you should have nothing to hide. Show your face.
Why was my comment about introducing internment removed? It’s a legitimate suggestion
Scrap croke park 1. Maybe internment has been proven to be counter productive by British and Irish governments. ( a bit like croke park agreement so far.)
I doubt many of them have ever even been in the north easy saying your a hardline republican living 100 miles away from the streets of belfast and the fields of Armagh
Regardless of your political persuasions, the law is the law and should be enforced fairly and fearlessly. This was a perfect opportunity to seize a number of illegally held firearms from the hands of madmen. Too late now. These weapons are well hidden away. Ready to kill or maim some poor junkie that won’t pay his dealer!
When you say “perfect opportunity” do you mean the substantial risk to innocent bystanders and funeral goers was acceptable and any “collateral damage” would be acceptable to you?
Eh no. Come on Vinny! Are you telling me that in the time it takes for a burial that the Gardaí (our protectors) can’t set up a load of checkpoints on the roads surrounding the graveyard. Stop every car leaving, search them and seize a few bloody spud guns? Call in support from the ERU and the god damn army if you have to in order to get these guns off our streets. It’s time for Ireland to wake up and get angry!
Eh Declan the shots were fired in his back garden not the graveyard. You’ll say that’s is not important but it highlights that you are on here dictating police procedure and you don’t even know where the shots were fired.
Then I would assume the guns were broken down and removed from the house with the coffin (not by the action boys in fancy dress) but other people at the funeral. Now I would like you to honestly think about what would have happened had the police intervened and started searching everyone at that time?
If he severed his country back when this was ok then what is wrong with him being honoured ?
He didn’t. He’s a drug dealer. Who does that serve?
i agree with the guards going down the safe route THIS time. would have been violence of some degree if they moved in and shots would have been fired and lets face it more of the real ira would have been hit then the guards as the guards while not armed still have far more guns to call on.
but its good to gauge public reaction and i think next time the guards should have an in your face approach and mix few hundred guards in with the crowd so they are everywhere. be in no doubt there will be a next time
have your say