Dick Roche held at gunpoint during Co Wicklow hotel robbery

turgon

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/1215/breaking39.htm

He missed an online EU meeting as a result.

Maybe the government will now have motivation to start coming down hard on gun crime. This kind of crime is an absolute disgrace.

oscarBravo

It will probably be used as more justification for banning licenced handguns.

CTU_Agent

Are ministerials 'drivers' not armed gardai, trained in close protection duties?

CTU_Agent

turgon wrote: »

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He missed an online EU meeting as a result.

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:eek:

Oh no !! Get me the president ! Now![/url]

Villain

Well in fairness there were 4 raiders!

CTU_Agent

only 1 of whom was armed, if we are to believe the news. Two things strike me as bizarre.

1- 'The minister Swims here every morning' - This cannot be good for any close protection officer

2- An armed member of the close protection unit was held hostage by armed raiders, apparently having done nothing.

However I must point out- His priniciple, the minister, is safe and well, some might say mission accomplished.

Villain

Would you rather he tried to shoot all 4 and put the Ministers safety and the safety of others at risk, imo he the raiders wanted money so you give them the money and everyone is safe, putting peoples lives including a Government Ministers at risk for a few thousand Euro's would be daft

murphaph

The armed robbers probably had no idea Roche was even there. If I was an armed robber I'd likely avoid raiding a place where I knew an armed Garda was to be. The Garda likely realised they'd been caught up in an armed robbery by chance and played dumb-the right thing to do. Imagine Roche or an innocent hotel worker or customer had been shot as a result of the Garda's actions. The money is likely to be insured.

CTU_Agent

I would say the culprits are counting their blessings, like you say I doubt they would have hit a premises knowing there was armed gardai already there...

Did they become aware of the ministers presence at any point I wonder, or was he just a joe soap....

Fratton Fred

So a government minister got robbed blind by members of the public.

Oh the irony

CTU_Agent

“Mr Roche was returning from a daily swim at the hotel’s pool when he was approached from behind and had a gun shoved into his back," his spokesman said.

He was forced into a room with his driver and other staff members." -Irish times


At what point does his protection officer decide to react I wonder?

murphaph

How do you know he didn't react? Reacting does not automatically imply firing his weapon etc. etc. He may have realised Roche was in no danger and just caught up in a robbery. Realising this, he may have decided to play along. It seems whatever he did, it ended with no loss of life. Job's a good'n.

jmayo

CTU_Agent wrote: »

Are ministerials 'drivers' not armed gardai, trained in close protection duties?

CTU_Agent wrote: »

only 1 of whom was armed, if we are to believe the news. Two things strike me as bizarre.

1- 'The minister Swims here every morning' - This cannot be good for any close protection officer

2- An armed member of the close protection unit was held hostage by armed raiders, apparently having done nothing.

However I must point out- His priniciple, the minister, is safe and well, some might say mission accomplished.

Ok I will ask honestly would anyone here lay down your life for any of the current shower of incumbents, never mind Roche.
One of the biggest muppets. Gardai don't get paid enough and probably are not patriotic enough to take a bullet for the wasdtes of space they hvae to chauffeur around.

I am surprised Roche is not on the news blaming Ganley and Libertas for the raid :rolleyes:

They will probably now decide to ban shotguns as well as handguns, since of course all criminals, drug dealers and armed robbers are the type that would be applying for licenses for the their weapons.

I know it is not nice to say, but maybe when one of the useless runts gets killed will they finally start doing something meaningful about crime in this country.

Al I will say is, minister welcome to the reality of life in modern day Ireland, where you are only a short distance from getting killed, robbed or having the the cr** hammered out of you :rolleyes:

It wasn't me!

Gun crime is truly problematic. However, if they attempt to use this to justify further a ban on licensed handguns (even if it was a shotgun used) then that's just spineless and worthless government. Arm the Gardai (with their consent - this is a sticking point), put more on the streets and invest further manpower in tackling gun crime and drugs. That's the only way to tackle this. It's rather complex as removing major players in drug business leaves a power vaccuum and leads to violence as people struggle to fill this from lower echelons, but better dead scumbags than citizens.

RiverWilde

Why has this been treated as news?

A minister gets robbed whilst leaving the plush surrounds of a very nice hotel and suddenly the media goes mental. Yawn.

Some poor sod gets robbed at knife point/gun point at on some street in some town in Ireland and it's never reported or commented on.

I wonder is it because those audacious robbers had the cheek to rob said hotel. How dare they?! Who do they think they are?!

Riv

Drummerboy08

Ok i have a few questions on this.

1 - How do we know Dick has a Protection Officer?

2 - If he does, why? I didnt realise our "Minister" for European Affairs was being targeted by Bin Laden and associates. Could the money that it costs to provide him with a protection officer not be used in a more efficient way, such as putting an extra Garda on the street to prevent and deter some proper crimes, instead of driving his lordship around?

3 - What our of the morning did this happen? If it was after 9 am, should our Minister not have been in office, instead of swanning around in a fancy gym?

And finally - Will this cause the government to wake up and and actually do something about the level of violent crimes happening more and more in this country?

Drummerboy08

uhm..
Roche has just been on 5-7 live about this and referred to his driver as the "chap" who was driving me.
I doubt that would have been a guard-he's a junior minister isn't he?

junior ministers don't have "protection officers" do they?

Also 9 people were locked up at gunpoint and €20k was robbed,that is a news worthy item.

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

3 - What our of the morning did this happen? If it was after 9 am, should our Minister not have been in office, instead of swanning around in a fancy gym?

He said he's normally there at 730am and was running late on this occasion.

Villain

Well he's a so called "Super Junior" Minister so not sure if he would have a protection officer.

Drummerboy08

OK. I dont want to sound like a Dick (excuse the pun)

But if you were running late for work on a Monday morning would you -

A - Phone into your boss, let them know you are on your way, skip going to the gym, and go straight to work?

OR

B - Would you head on to the gym regardless of work?

I know what i'd be doing. Sounds like someone is trying to cover there behind IMO.

Fratton Fred

This government can't even do "Getting held up by Robbers in a Hotel" properly. A decent government minister would have had at least four lines of cocaine and half a dozen hookers hanging around before getting robbed of his dodgy Rolex

I would guess that this was opportunistic and therefore no real threat to the minister which is why the guard didn't intervene. wrong place wrong time by the sounds of things.

enda1

As far as I know hte protection officers keep the guns in the boot of the car, not on them like some secret service whatchamicallit.

Manic Moran

As far as I know hte protection officers keep the guns in the boot of the car, not on them like some secret service whatchamicallit.

What's the point in that?

"My God! It's the first assasination attempt on a Minister in 60 years! I am surprised! Would you mind awfully not continuing your ambush until I get my gun out the back of the car to shoot back, please?"

Would you rather he tried to shoot all 4 and put the Ministers safety and the safety of others at risk, imo he the raiders wanted money

You miss the point. If the Minister has a protective escort then that escort let an armed person get into a position to harm his charge. I'm sure the gun was pointed before the announcement was made that 'This is a robbery' (and even then, he could always have been lying). I would consider that a security failing.

NTM

DeirdreD

CTU_Agent wrote: »

“Mr Roche was returning from a daily swim at the hotel’s pool when he was approached from behind and had a gun shoved into his back," his spokesman said.

He was forced into a room with his driver and other staff members." -Irish times


At what point does his protection officer decide to react I wonder?

While my heart goes out to all innocent victims in the hotel, on this occasion I wonder why we as tax payers are paying protection officiers and drivers to poliiticans on route for a mid-morning swim in a hotel!!

It wasn't me!

enda1 wrote: »

As far as I know hte protection officers keep the guns in the boot of the car, not on them like some secret service whatchamicallit.

Nope, I can tell you Enda Kenny's bodyguard needs a better tailor to hide his shoulder holster. The driver's gun is in the glove box while driving as far as I know, but on them when out of the car.

FX Meister

Boring. Who cares?

Heinrich

This is probably to trump Bush getting te shoes flung at him. It certainly is nort a real raid if they targetted Roche. They would have problems getting at his commnion money.

A non story.

enda1

It wasn't me! wrote: »

Nope, I can tell you Enda Kenny's bodyguard needs a better tailor to hide his shoulder holster. The driver's gun is in the glove box while driving as far as I know, but on them when out of the car.

Maybe you're right about glove box v boot.
But I didn't know politicians not in office had gardaí protecting them?

The one minister I've know's drivers never had their guns on them when out of the car - maybe it varies from minister to minister/driver to driver.

It wasn't me!

enda1 wrote: »

Maybe you're right about glove box v boot.
But I didn't know politicians not in office had gardaí protecting them?

Ministers for justice and Taoisigh get them after they leave office I think. I don't think anyone else does.

The one minister I've know's drivers never had their guns on them when out of the car - maybe it varies from minister to minister/driver to driver.

I dunno, makes no sense to have a bodyguard without the guns. Is it just that you never saw them or they made a point of not having the guns on them? Personally, I'd find it rather stupid to do the latter.

ismynametoolong

Couldnt have happened to a nicer Dick !!

juuge

I doubt very much if Roche swims every day. He is definitely overweight and judging by his red face and mutton-head, he is heading for a heart attack.

Sparks

It wasn't me! wrote: »

I dunno, makes no sense to have a bodyguard without the guns.

Makes loads of sense to me. I'd want my bodyguard to be unarmed so he or she was really, really, really motivated to keep me out of trouble in the first place

As to the incident, given that the firearm used (a sawn-off shotgun) is illegal to possess, own or use under the Firearms Act, as well as being illegal to use in a crime such as this, maybe it's a point to keep in mind when considering banning legally held licenced handguns as the Minister for Justice is stating he's considering doing?