A force to be reckoned with

Detective had to draw gun on gangland thugs, Officer tells of being called out to steakhouse shooting

- BY MICHAEL O'TOOLE Crime and Defence Editor and PAUL HEALY Crime Correspondent.

THESE gardai today open up about their careers in the force - including one detective who had to draw his pistol on gangland suspects.

Detective Sergeant Gary Dunne of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau says of the incident: “It ended with people being arrested and detained. It was a fast, dynamic situation.

“They complied with our directions and that was the end of it”

He was one of four gardai speaking to our Shattered Lives crime podcast - on what it is like to be a member of the force in 2026.

They were at Garda HQ in Dublin's Phoenix Park to highlight the latest ongoing recruitment campaign for the force, which runs until next Wednesday.

Other interviewees who speak to our podcast include an Armed Support Unit inspector who acts as a negotiator in hostage situations.

She was called to the infamous shooting at a Dublin restaurant on Christmas Eve 2023 that cost Jason Hennessy Snr and Tristan Sherry their lives.

We also speak to a uniformed garda who keeps the peace in Dublin Airport and a young officer who came to Ireland as a child refugee from Africa.

The latter, Garda Emmanuel Samuel, says he is proud to have passed his two-year probation period - becoming a fully fledged member of the force just a few weeks ago.

Garda Samuel was born in a camp in northern Uganda in 1996 after his family fled from war-torn South Sudan - and later came to settle in Ireland in a UN programme.

They settled in Kilkenny in 2008. He joined the force just over two years ago and is based in Wicklow.

SHOOTING

He says: “ I am 30 now, so more than half of my life is Kilkenny. Back in Uganda we constantly have to move around for safety reasons. Kilkenny would be the only place in the world that I know like the back of my hand. It is pretty much my home now.”

He says he joined the gardai because it aligned with his interests and passions.