I think the guns may have been ordered on the darkweb, which the constabulary intercepted, and proceeded with a controlled delivery to check whether they were ending up in the possession of dissidents or drugs gangs, as a lackey normally picks them up for the aforementioned, before relaying them onto a quartermaster, or someone of significance within an organization, but they quickly realized they were for the Carlow lad himself, that he was just a gun nut.
I think there’s a lot being made of this controlled delivery. I think the cops did everything right in that regard.
The fuck-up lay in letting the chap out on bail. The guy should have been refused bail, or held in a secure psychiatric facility, but places in both are bordering on the non-existent.
If this country continually refuses to massively scale up our mental health infrastructure, we need to build more jails. It’s one or the other, but we’re going to continually endanger society if we refuse to pick one. Either choice however, does not win you an election, and it could quickly lose you a lot of votes if you decide to plonk a prison where your voters come from.
If I was FF/FG, I would fast track a building of a huge prison, in the county they’re most likely not to do well in consistently. Traditional Sinn Fein voting counties, which would most likely be a border county, and probably Donegal or Monaghan…without having a look at the numbers.
You’re definitely onto something here. A greenfield prison site just off the N2 beside the Monaghan GAA training centre in between CMX & Blayney (or is it between Blayney & Monaghan town?) could fit the bill ideally. A PPP/PFI type arrangement akin to the social housing, nursing homes & schools bundles completed in the recent past, with the government granting the concession to a group of sponsors with the requisite expertise & experience in the wider accommodation & social infrastructure space. I imagine the likes of Banty McEneaney & Vincent McManus would be extremely keen to get their teeth into something of this nature, & I’d be very interested in providing the necessary finance subject to the usual caveats.
I don’t think putting him in prison would have solved anything much. Secure mental health unit would, but like you say, there were probably none available. Poor soul.
There’s definitely been an upsurge in gun nuts in this country, since the relaxation of our gun laws in folk not affiliated with gangs, or political ideology. I have noticed a non-stop hubbub of activity on boards of people with this obsession/hobby.
Guns have no place outside of the farms that genuinely require them, the police force, and an ideally state body involved in the necessary culling of animals that is required from time to time in the state.
There’s probably over 1000 hobbies that one can choose from on this earth. Any country that has the real potential of removing owning guns from that list, should…like Scotland did after Dunblane. It will probably take something of that nature to happen here to make that happen, but rest assured that these wingnuts will be trying to increase their lobbying power between now and then to ensure any attempts to curtail ownership would fail.
I’m not sure what farms really genuinely need them anyway tbh.
There’s a farm in Tallaght needed them not so long ago.
And a bachelor in Mayo before that
Foxes aren’t going to shoot themselves
On well-run farms pests have to be kept down .
The Swiss are the most armed nation in Europe AFAIK, with Finland close to them too. Nearly one in two own guns, and they’ve practically no gun crime.
Gun ownership in Albania is incredibly low, and they’ve huge amounts of gun crime
Conditions in Irish prisons are scandalous at present. We urgently need new ones
The Fins only have them aimed one direction.
Is this how you ended up in Portlaoise?

Is this how you ended up in Portlaoise?
Portlaoise Jail would tame a tiger
Try, me boys and hope you get bail
There’s many’s a heart that sobs and sighs
Inside the walls of Portlaoise Jail
Yknow theres two prisons in Portlaoise. Not a lot of people know that as Michael Caine used say.

Yknow theres two prisons in Portlaoise.
Two prisons and purgatory there
You aint wrong bro. Thank God its bypassed.

You aint wrong bro. Thank God its bypassed.
There was a lovely sweet shop underneath a railway bridge on the outskirts of the town on main road to mountrath.

The Swiss are the most armed nation in Europe AFAIK, with Finland close to them too. Nearly one in two own guns, and they’ve practically no gun crime.
Gun ownership in Albania is incredibly low, and they’ve huge amounts of gun crime
But it’s made them excellent at sharing which is great for society in general

I think the guns may have been ordered on the darkweb, which the constabulary intercepted, and proceeded with a controlled delivery to check whether they were ending up in the possession of dissidents or drugs gangs, as a lackey normally picks them up for the aforementioned, before relaying them onto a quartermaster, or someone of significance within an organization, but they quickly realized they were for the Carlow lad himself, that he was just a gun nut.
I think there’s a lot being made of this controlled delivery. I think the cops did everything right in that regard.
Listening to Ivan Yates podcast appears that yes the guns were intercepted and being kept in storage. But not clear that the victim actually was the person who ordered them. Guards got a tip off from Interpol that he has a massive interest in guns on dark web and seems like cops snared him then using the weapons. He had a couple of his buddies with him who were completely innocent when the cops picked them up with the guns in the boot (albeit disabled so couldn’t be used) and he felt v guilty about bringing his pals into the mess…
Also appears that when he was bailed in court the judge asked guards where had he gotten the guns and they said they didn’t know it was being investigated which was clearly not the case…