Three months after the murder of the two Gardaí in Roscommon, on Monday 13 October, an IRA gang took over the village of Callan, County Kilkenny. During the audacious raid they held a number of soldiers and two Gardaí at gunpoint. The unarmed troops and police were in the process of delivering oil, during one of many nationwide strikes. The Provos first robbed the Bank of Ireland, then got into their getaway car, reversed 100 yards down the road and hit the Allied Irish Bank. When they were finished, the gang drove back down the street, picked up the gunman holding the Gardaí and soldiers, and sped out of town with £10,000 for ‘the cause’.
Later that night, as part of the follow-up investigation, Detective Garda Seamus Quaid and his partner, Donal Lyttleton, were on the look-out for Belfast IRA man Peter Rogers. He ran a mobile greengrocery business from his home near Wexford Town. He was well known to the two local detectives who were tasked with monitoring the activities of terrorists in the area. Around 10.30 p.m. they spotted Rogers driving his van between Wexford Town and Duncannon. They pulled him over and asked him to open up the back of the van. Inside they discovered a small arsenal of explosives, electronic detonators, four guns, mercury switches and delay-action units for priming bombs. Rogers suddenly produced a gun and fired a shot over the heads of the detectives. He ordered them into a nearby quarry.
Seamus Quaid, who had been an All-Ireland Wexford hurler, produced his handgun. The detective pointed it at Rogers, ordering him to put his gun down. The Garda and the Provo then fired a number of shots at each other. At the same time Donal Lyttleton, who didn’t have a firearm, was forced to dive for cover and went to get help. When the shooting was over, Seamus Quaid lay dying on the ground, while Rogers was injured in the leg. Despite his injuries the Provo made a run for it. The detective died 15 minutes later. He was 42 years old and the father of four children. Rogers later gave himself up and was charged with the murder of Seamus Quaid. In March 1981, the Special Criminal Court convicted the IRA man of the Garda’s murder and sentenced him to death. Rogers was also convicted on the firearms and explosives charges. His death sentence was commuted to 40 years without the benefit of remission. The Provo was released 18 years later, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
In response to the Garda murders, the Fianna Fáil Justice Minister, Gerry Collins, unveiled with much fanfare a £100 million security plan to tackle the increased threat of subversive and organized crime. The plan included provision for an increase in the overall strength of the force and an expansion of the Special Task Force (STF) – which was largely Dublin-based – to cover every Garda division in the country. The most exotic and expensive part of the plan was the provision of a dozen helicopters and light planes which would be used to back up Gardaí on the ground. (The Gardaí took delivery of the first police helicopter and surveillance plane in 1997.)
The murders of the three Gardaí had a major impact on the internal debate among detectives about carrying firearms. Apart from the Special Task Force and Special Detective Unit members, the rest of the plainclothes officers in the force were mostly unarmed and had expressed a wish to remain so. In a ballot held among detectives in Dublin in 1979 the vast majority had voted against being armed. In early 1981, however, there was a complete reversal of the earlier result, with 239 members voting in favour of carrying firearms, while 89 were against. Any remaining doubts there were about the need to be able to shoot back were erased in December 1980 when two more detectives were shot and critically injured, this time by a Dublin crime gang.
Frank Ward was one of the most dangerous armed robbers to operate in over four decades of organized crime. His reputation for violence was so great that even the other members of his gang were afraid of him. From the beginning of his criminal career Ward stood out for his obsession with planning and his sheer ruthlessness. One former associate recalled: ‘Everyone went on jobs well tooled-up but Frank always brought a fucking arsenal with him – machine-guns, automatic pistols, rifles and grenades. Frank had no problem killing a Guard if one got in the way and he nearly always fired shots during a job. He was fucking mad.’
Born in Sligo, on 6 June 1953, Ward was a member of the travelling community. He had a dreadful childhood and spent a number of years in orphanages and the industrial schools. By the time he was a teenager, Ward was a reckless hood who was up for anything. He spent time living in Manchester and Belfast, before moving to live in Tallaght, West Dublin when he got married at 17.
An incident outside a Dublin nightclub in the late 1970s illustrated his volatility. Ward arrived at the club wearing an odd-looking cowboy hat and dark glasses. One of the bouncers laughed, saying: ‘Jaysus, are you in disguise tonight, Frank Ward?’ The armed robber didn’t like the joke. He produced a handgun and shot the bouncer in the stomach. Although the Gardaí knew Ward did it, the bouncer wouldn’t co-operate with the investigation. He was afraid that Ward would finish him off the next time. No one dared to jeer at his dress sense again.
Although Ward’s first recorded conviction was not until 1978, when he got a suspended sentence for car theft, he was already a dedicated armed robber. He had originally been a member of the republican criminal mob, Saor Eire. Ward led a five-man gang which he organized like a terrorist cell. He picked the targets to be robbed and planned each job himself. The rest of the gang was not informed about the location of the job until the last minute. It ensured total secrecy about each heist and prevented tip-offs to the Gardaí. Ward’s gang did scores of heists throughout the country, hitting factory payrolls, banks and post offices. According to Garda intelligence reports, Ward ‘trained’ criminals, teaching them how to rob. In one daring raid on 28 May 1979, his crew simultaneously robbed two banks in the village of Kilcock, County Kildare. During the heist, shots were fired from several firearms including a machine-gun, terrifying the hostages and forcing the police to back off. Ward told his victims that it was a job for Saor Eire.
The Ward gang included Johnny Doran from Ballyfermot, West Dublin. In Garda files Doran, who was a year older than Ward, was also described as a ruthless armed robber. He’d a long record for burglary before he moved on to more dangerous crime. Another member of the team was 32-year-old Anthony ‘Tonto’ O’Brien from the Oliver Bond House flats in Dublin’s inner-city. O’Brien had a string of convictions, including one for manslaughter in 1969 for which he’d served four years in prison. Ward’s second-in-command was 26-year-old James Daly from the north inner-city who Gardaí classified as ‘very vicious’. Ward and his cohorts also took part in robberies with the Cahills and other emerging gangs. Doran was a close friend of George Mitchell and the Cunninghams.
In November 1980, Ward began plotting a robbery from the Bank of Ireland branch in Stillorgan Shopping Centre, South County Dublin. His plan was to hit the bank on 30 December, when it would be bulging with cash from the pre-Christmas spending spree.
Ward bought a green Volkswagen van from a used car lot owned by John Traynor. It could comfortably carry a group of armed men and the rear-mounted engine would provide protection if the gang came under fire. He equipped his crew with a total of eight firearms – a machine-gun, an automatic pistol, a revolver, two .22 rifles and three shotguns. Each weapon was loaded and had plenty of extra ammunition.
At 3.30 p.m. on 30 December 1980, the gang struck. Doran stayed with the van in the car park, while Ward and three others ran towards the bank. The sight of the armed and masked raiders, in combat-style clothing, caused panic among shoppers, who began running in all directions to get away. The bank had just closed so the raiders ran up to the plate-glass window and used a sledgehammer to smash it in. Frank Ward and two others jumped through the broken window, while the fourth man covered the front. In less than three minutes the gang snatched over £102,000. The four reckless robbers then ran back through the car park and jumped into the waiting van.
Sean Keeley, an off-duty detective attached to the Special Detective Unit (SDU), heard the screams and went to investigate. He spotted the ra
iders running to the van. As they got inside the detective stepped into view and pulled out his .38 revolver. Ward and his men smashed the van’s rear window and aimed their rifles at him. Keeley fired a shot and the gang responded with a volley of bullets, forcing the detective to duck down behind a parked car. The gang were still shooting as the van sped off, narrowly missing him.
Garda units across South Dublin had been alerted about the armed robbery. Detective Gardaí William Daly and Richard Curran were patrolling near Cabinteely Village when they heard the message. Daly, who was 43, had been in the force since 1959 and his 55-year-old partner had been in the job since 1947. William Daly drove their unmarked squad car, code-named Whiskey 8, through Foxrock Village in an attempt to cut the raiders off. They spotted the green Volkswagen and gave chase. The Garda car, which was more powerful than the van, began to close in. The gang fired a number of shots at the squad car, forcing it to drop back to a safer distance.
Ward was determined to shake off the police car permanently. When the van turned a corner Ward suddenly ordered Doran to stop. As the detectives drove up they saw the ambush – but were too late to do anything about it. Ward and his gangsters opened fire with a machine-gun, pistol and rifle, peppering the squad car and hitting the veteran detectives several times. Richard Curran was shot in the hand and fingers, while two more machine-gun rounds grazed the right side of his head. Another bullet ripped through William Daly’s right forearm, causing extensive bone damage. Other rounds hit him in both legs. As the firing continued, Curran managed to open his passenger door and roll out onto the road, followed by Daly. The officers lay on the ground for cover and waited for the firing to stop. When the van sped off, Curran staggered to the side of the road and fell down. Daly, who was bleeding heavily, radioed in their position and the direction the van had taken.
Garda units converged on the area as Ward’s gang headed into the Dublin Mountains. They abandoned the van on Glencullen Road and hijacked another car at gunpoint, but crashed it a few miles further up the road. They then hijacked a second car. Ward wanted to hold the driver as a hostage but there was no space for him in the car. At the same moment, Detective Garda Martin Doyle of the SDU arrived at the scene. He recognized James Daly who had taken off his balaclava. One of the gunmen aimed his rifle at the detective, as another armed raider walked towards him, brandishing a gun. The rifleman had to adjust the weapon so Doyle quickly reversed his car out of the line of fire. The gang members then crowded into the second car.
As the SDU officer reversed down the road, he met Detectives Martin Donnellan and Kieran Brennan, who’d arrived from Donnybrook Garda Station. Donnellan had survived an encounter with Ward’s former Saor Eire comrades 12 years earlier, in Ballyfermot. The detectives blocked the narrow road with their two squad cars. Seconds later the gang drove round a corner at speed and ground to a halt, about 20 yards from the police. Doyle, the only one of the three detectives armed, took cover behind a tree and drew his automatic pistol. Donnellan and Brennan crouched behind their car and pretended that they were also armed. Brennan aimed his walkie-talkie, while Donnellan pointed his hands at the robbers to look like he was holding a weapon. There was panic in the getaway car and it reversed at speed back up the road, before sliding into a drain. The unarmed detectives then ran towards the five raiders as they clamoured to get out of the car.
The officers were still aiming their ‘weapons’ at the mob while Detective Garda Doyle covered them. The gang thought they were out-gunned and made a run for it up the side of the mountain. As they did so, Doyle fired a warning shot over their heads while his colleagues continued their pursuit. He fired a second warning shot when one of the gang members turned and pointed a gun at him. The detective then fired another three rounds directly at the gangsters, hitting Tonto O’Brien twice in the knee. O’Brien and Doran dropped to the ground while Ward, Daly and the fifth robber continued running. A few yards further up Ward also stopped.
The three raiders were ordered to put their hands up as Donnellan and Brennan closed in, ‘weapons’ drawn. Doyle moved up to cover them as more units began to arrive. Brennan and Donnellan first arrested Doran and passed him back to another detective. They then arrested O’Brien, who was sitting with his hands in the air and screaming with pain. Donnellan then went for Ward, who was breathing heavily and in a distressed state. ‘Shoot me now, I want you to shoot me now,’ the robber, who was carrying a loaded pistol in his pocket, demanded. Donnellan grabbed him but Ward refused to walk and had to be dragged back down the mountain. All the way he kept repeating his request to be shot. An extensive search was mounted for the other two raiders but they managed to get away.
Doran later made a full statement to Donnellan admitting his part in the robbery. When the blagger was asked why the gang had done so much shooting, he admitted: ‘We went mad shooting. We all lost our heads and started shooting. The gun I had blew up and I thought I was after shooting meself. I know I’ve been caught red handed.’ Doran said he regretted that two officers had been shot. Detective Garda Curran left hospital two weeks later and recovered from his injuries. William Daly suffered serious damage to his arm and was hospitalized for almost a month. Technical examination of the squad car later confirmed that the two detectives had a miraculous escape from death.
On New Year’s Eve Frank Ward and Johnny Doran were charged with the attempted murder of the two, injured detectives and the bank robbery. Tonto O’Brien was also charged with the same offences when he was released from hospital. In July 1981, Ward, Doran and O’Brien were jailed for 12 years each by the Special Criminal Court, after they were convicted of attempted murder and the robbery. James Daly fled to the UK, where his luck eventually ran out. He was subsequently jailed for 16 years when British police caught him during a post office robbery. The fifth man was never located.
The Gardaí had been extremely lucky that day. In 1981 six detectives involved in the pursuit and arrest of Ward and his gang were awarded Scott Medals for valour in the course of their duties: Detectives Curran and Daly were awarded gold Scott Medals; Detectives Martin Donnellan and Kieran Brennan were decorated with silver medals; and Detectives Keeley and Doyle were presented with bronze medals.
The award ceremony in the Templemore Garda Training Centre that year was one of the most poignant in the history of the Garda Síochána. In all 14 officers were honoured at the medal ceremony, 3 of them posthumously. All the bravery medals awarded in 1981 resulted from confrontations between the Gardaí and armed robbers. The widows and children of the three murdered officers sat beside their dead husbands’ colleagues. Martin Donnellan never forgot that day and recalled thirty years later: ‘It was the most heart-breaking day in my career when I saw a little child of no more than four holding his murdered Daddy’s medal. We were the lucky ones. It really drove home the fact that the subversives and criminals were trying to terrorize every citizen in the country.’
The murders of Gardaí in 1980 resulted in the issuing of .38 Smith and Wesson revolvers to most of the country’s detectives. Together with the STF units, they began firing back and now posed a major threat to the armed robbers, whose chosen trade was becoming considerably more perilous. Henry Dunne and Joe Roe were among the first high-profile blaggers to have a run in with the STF when they were caught following a shoot-out in May 1981. It gave members of the Dunne family another excuse – they blamed the armed police for forcing them into the drug trade.
The Gardaí had already convinced another dangerous criminal to make the same career-altering decision. On 15 February 1980, Peter Joseph ‘PJ’ Judge from Finglas robbed Boland’s Post Office in Ballyfermot, West Dublin with two other associates. During the robbery the 23-year-old up-and-coming drug baron demonstrated his violent disposition when he shot the post master, Michael Delaney, in the leg and chest. Delaney had tried to grab Judge’s sawn-off shotgun as the robber jumped across the counter and grabbed £600. An hour later Judge and one of his accomplices, Willie O’Reilly, a violent cri
minal who had been reared in Artane Industrial School, were arrested by detectives. They were charged with attempted murder and armed robbery.
Judge, from Ballygall Crescent in Finglas, was already well known to the Gardaí. From an early age he displayed a tendency for extreme violence. His associates and the Gardaí described Judge as a natural-born killer. Many years later he would be known by his very apt nickname – ‘the Psycho’. Judge had first demonstrated his capacity for violence in 1969 at the age of 14. He broke into a gunsmith’s in Finglas, stole a shotgun and used it to shoot up the home of another teenager, who’d convinced Judge to dye his hair a day earlier. The Psycho got upset when other kids started laughing at him. Judge was later convicted for theft and possession of a firearm and rewarded with two years in a reformatory school. When he came out, he was even more dangerous and unpredictable.
The Psycho had no qualms about attacking the Gardaí if they got in the way. While on bail for the Ballyfermot robbery Judge held up a bank branch on Annesley Bridge in Glasnevin, North Dublin. During the heist Judge was confronted by an off-duty Garda. He aimed his gun at the policeman’s head and squeezed the trigger. Luckily it jammed and the Psycho was arrested.
Judge and O’Reilly were jailed for ten years each for the Ballyfermot robbery. The Psycho later received another ten years for the Annesley Bridge hold-up. Like so many other ruthless villains before him, Judge swore that when he got out he would never again do serious time behind bars. The Psycho would leave his mark on the history of Gangland.
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