Young mother's gun death a new low, says Ahern
The callous shooting of a young mother at a birthday party in Dublin marked a new low in Irish society, the Taoiseach said tonight.
After Donna Cleary was gunned down by men who opened fire on a house when refused entry to a party, Bertie Ahern said: “It certainly is a new low.
“Somebody to blast live rounds indiscriminately into the front room of a small house to kill a young 22-year-old mother, it’s hard to think of anything more low than that. It’s a very sad occasion.”
Justice Minister Michael McDowell said the men responsible were savages who displayed a wanton disregard for life.
As Ms Cleary’s neighbours in Coolock said prayers for her in the parish church, Mr Ahern called for longer sentences for serious offences like murder.
He said: “When you see the amount of crimes and gun crimes, it just makes you feel that perhaps we are just too lenient, that people serve too short a sentence for murder.”
The 22-year-old mother of a three-year-old boy was shot dead in the early hours of Sunday morning when the men returned to the 40th birthday party at Adare Green in Coolock, Dublin and sprayed it with bullets from the roadside.
Mr McDowell warned courts must make an example of anyone found guilty of the illegal possession of firearms.
“This is a horrific crime – an innocent young mother shot by some savages who had a wanton disregard of life,” he said.
“Clearly if an automatic pistol is going to be used in circumstances such as these, we all have to reflect on what kind of society we have.
“That applies for everybody not just the Minister for Justice, it applies to the Judiciary as well. Possession of firearms are very serious offences and they must be dealt with in a way which makes an example of any offender.”
Mr McDowell said it was grave for the quality of everyone’s lives that some people could take someone else’s life just because they were refused from a party.
“I believe that everybody in Ireland, be they elected politicians, ordinary citizens, members of the judiciary, members of law enforcement agencies, anybody who reflects on what happened last night must realise this is a watershed point,” he said.
“We have had in the past people say that with all these firearms eventually somebody who is totally innocent was going to get caught up in the crossfire, here it has arrived.
“I regard it now as a watershed point for all our social thinking on these matters.”
Mr McDowell said the drugs issue in society, and the firearms that go along with it, must be dealt with very severely. He said there were no extenuating circumstances for leniency to be granted over the possession of an automatic pistol.
The minister, who is planning to introduce mandatory sentences for firearms offences of between five and 10 years, said "get-out clauses" for those found guilty of possession of firearms or drugs offences should only be used rarely.
Attributing these types of violent acts as a direct by-product of the drugs industry, Mr McDowell said there were provisions in the Criminal Justice Bill for a gun amnesty for illegally held weapons to be taken out of circulation.
“We as a society have to signal at every level, legislative, executive and judiciary our complete and total condemnation of this kind of activity,” he said.
Detectives investigating Ms Cleary’s shooting arrested four men and one woman at a house in Kildare shortly after 11pm last night.
They are being detained at Santry and Coolock Garda Stations under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and can be held for up three days.
Supt Noel McLoughlin, who is leading the 50-strong team of gardaí investigating the murder, has appealed for taxi drivers who drove customers from Innis Fail GAA club in Balgriffin on Saturday night to a house party at Adare Green to come forward.
At around 2am on Sunday morning three men were turned away from the party. Half an hour later a silver car pulled up outside the house before an unmasked gunman took aim, firing five or six shots at the terraced house.
