Caherlistrane PP attacked and robbed by raiders

By TOM GILMORE AS Easter Week Church ceremonies recall the forgiving words of Jesus on the cross,  â€Å“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they doâ€Â (Luke 23:34) Caherlistrane priest Fr Pat Oâ€â„¢Brien has vowed to follow the example of his master by offering a Mass for a gang of four armed and masked robbers that tied him up and ransacked his home in a terrifying ordeal last weekend The priestâ€â„¢s ordeal went on for over an hour from shortly after 9.15 on Friday night until the raiders left the house at about 10.30, having tied him to a chair and a radiator. By the time he had freed himself and â€Å“hobbledâ€Â to a neighbourâ€â„¢s house it was almost 11.15. While the Gardai from Tuam were on the scene within 10 minutes the burglars, thought to be a travelling gang from outside the area, had disappeared. Badly traumatised, but not physically injured, Fr Oâ€â„¢Brien continued with his priestly duties over the weekend and when the Gardai had completed their forensic examination of the house he returned on Monday morning to survey the scene of his ordeal. As he walked into the study where he had been tied up Fr Oâ€â„¢Brien remarked that it was like the scene of a tsunami. â€Å“The four wore ski type balaclavas which were very moulded into their faces but I felt from the look in the eyes of one that I thought was the most dangerous man in the group that he was on some sort of drugs. From the look in his eyes and the way he was acting he seemed to be high on something,â€Â says Fr Oâ€â„¢Brien. â€Å“I realised very quickly that this one of them, who was shoving a bludgeon or a crowbar against me was very dangerous. During the course of the robbery anytime I was alone with him in the room I was scared. â€Å“He seemed to take pleasure in destroying anything that looked to be personal to me, photographs and letters in particular. â€Å“The worse incident was when they found a little box containing all the letters that I wrote to my mam and dad during my lifetime. Some were from student days in St Jarlathâ€â„¢s College, Maynooth College, and Rome and from other places around the world. At some level this is the most precious thing that I have and he seemed to know that. He scattered some of them around and tore some up and any that had envelopes on them he split the envelopes open.â€Â Likewise he tried to smash the glass or frames of some photos that he though were personal to the priest. â€Å“I only heard two words from him, one was â€Ëœpaedophileâ€â„¢ and the other was â€Ëœgoldâ€â„¢. I said to him that he was wrong on both counts but he didnâ€â„¢t appreciate the humour of that at all,â€Â says Fr Oâ€â„¢Brien. One saved him But he believes that the one fellow, that he established some rapport with during his ordeal, who seemed to be the leader of the gang, saved him from serious injury at the hands of the other. â€Å“The one that I would call the good guy had a Cork or East Limerick accent and when I said to him at one stage that it was a terrible way for them to be carrying on in life he replied that they needed the money for drugs. They got away with my wallet but Iâ€â„¢m not sure how much was in it. Perhaps five, six or seven €50 notes and they didnâ€â„¢t take the credit cards. â€Å“When they were going I called out to them and said come back, I am going to say a Mass for ye. I donâ€â„¢t know why I said that, or I donâ€â„¢t know how impressed or unimpressed they were by it either. But I felt extraordinary grateful to the leader of the gang as I felt he saved me from greater harm,â€Â he added. And will he say the Mass for the gang? â€Å“Of course I will, if I promise to do something, I will do it,â€Â replied the affable priest. His ordeal began as he was sitting in the study at the parochial house watching the Ireland v Sweden soccer match on the TV when he heard â€Å“some commotionâ€Â at the front door. By the time he got to the door they had opened it and were coming in. The door was not locked at the time as Fr Oâ€â„¢Brien never locked the door until he would be going to bed in the past. But he has been putting on the lock at about 9.30 at night now since a bag of coins that he was collecting for Trocaire was stolen in a separate incident a few weeks ago. Cash in coins possibly totalling more than €1,000 was taken by burglars from the home of the priest while he was celebrating Mass on a Friday morning last month. He had gone to nearby Corner Chapel to celebrate Mass and the burglary happened at approximately 10 am. This incident is still the subject of a separate investigation by Tuam Gardai. Different gang? But it seems that that the armed burglary last weekend may have been the work of a different gang who targeted the priestâ€â„¢s house during darkness and who might have smashed their way into the building anyway if they had not found the door unlocked. â€Å“Itâ€â„¢s Godâ€â„¢s parish house, itâ€â„¢s a community house and as you would want to feel that people can come and go as they wish I had not been locking it early in the night. But so much for those sort of ideals,â€Â he said with a smile. The four masked burglars made the priest take them to the safe at first on Friday night. It is under the stairs, but he didnâ€â„¢t even have to unlock it as it is a relic from the past and it was already open and had no money in it. â€Å“But they thought that it was a decoy safe and they kept looking for another one. They also marched me upstairs to the bedrooms, something I had forgotten to mention to the Gardai initially, and while upstairs they scattered everything there around. â€Å“Then they took me into the two front rooms, finally into the one where I had been watching the match and they said they were tying me up and leaving me on the floor. But as I had established some rapport with one of them I asked them not to do that. The dangerous fellow removed my glasses and I had to appeal again to the good guy among them to put my glasses back on as I get violently sick without them. He took the glasses from the other fellow and put them back on me. â€Å“They tied my hands with their own ropes and my legs with the only tie that I have. I never wear it anyway but it was given to me as a Christmas present by my sister,â€Â says Fr Oâ€â„¢Brien. They cut the cord off the curtains to link together the ropes around his hands with the tie around his ankles. Houdini act â€Å“My hands were put behind my back, it was very painful and after I was tied to the chair they then tied that to the radiator. I amazed myself by my Houdini act of being able to wriggle my hands out of the ropes. â€Å“When they were going they said they were just off to check the back of the house to see if there was anything else there. They would be back in ten or 20 minutes and if I had made any attempt to free myself I would regret it for the rest of my life.â€Â He says that part of him knew that this was just a bluff and that they were making their escape but another part of him was saying that maybe it was not. â€Å“After five minutes or so I realised I could wriggle one hand out of the way the rope had been knotted and I felt I could pull it quickly back on again if they returned. So after a few more minutes I realised that they had gone and at that stage I got free. But I couldnâ€â„¢t untie the tie that was around my ankles. So I hobbled into the kitchen and got a knife and cut it and destroyed the nice tie that my sister had given me. â€Å“I went to the first house where I saw light and alerted my good friends Paddy and Regina Sice and they phoned the Gardai who were here within ten minutes. There must have been 20 Gardai here within a half an hourâ€Â. When the gang were leaving they disabled the landline phone and said they were taking the priestâ€â„¢s mobile when he pleaded with them not to do so. â€Å“One of them looked at me and said they couldnâ€â„¢t leave the mobile, as I would phone the Gardai. I said that while they might not believe me I would not do so and I asked them to think if one of their mothers were sick that night would they not like to be able to call a priest for her,â€Â he added. One of the gang said he would leave the mobile phone but it would be left in a place where the priest would not find it easily. However the Gardai found it later in the house. Detective Sergeant Mick Oâ€â„¢Driscoll of Tuam Gardai says they are seeking the help of the public who may have seen any suspicious activity in the Caherlistrane area between 8 and 11 pm last Friday night or during the previous few days. â€Å“Our inquiries are continuing but any help from members of the public who may have seen anyone acting suspiciously in the area in the days or hours leading up to the robbery may provide vital clues for us,â€Â he said. Be vigilant Fr Oâ€â„¢Brien added that the only reason he has been doing interviews regarding what happened to him is for other peopleâ€â„¢s sake, to encourage them to be more vigilant and keep their doors locked. â€Å“I hope that nothing like this happens to others as it is not something you would want to talk about.â€Â He said an elderly friend was robbed recently when bogus repairmen called to her front door and kept her talking while an accomplice or accomplices went in the back door and stole the money she had in her house. â€Å“The four that raided the parochial house and tied me up were obsessed by gold and the Gardai said to me that those advertisements offering cash for gold are encouraging those people to carry out such robberies. I donâ€â„¢t know how they could have thought that I would have gold because under present conditions in the Church I canâ€â„¢t even have a wedding ring,â€Â he concluded with a laugh. The armed robbery at the home of Fr Pat Oâ€â„¢Brien is proof that the closure of rural Garda stations and the cutbacks in the force are sending signals to the criminals that rural Ireland is open territory for them, according to Cllr Sean Canney. Wrong signals â€Å“It is sending out all the wrong signals and I fear that there are more closures to come, including Corofin Garda Station. If this happens we will be left with only Tuam and Headford stations in this area and itâ€â„¢s God help North Galway,â€Â he says. â€Å“I resigned from the Joint Policing Committee (JPC) because of the way they are closing down rural Garda stations and cutting resources. The Government are only ticking boxes by having JPC meetings while they are giving a kick in the backside to the people of rural Ireland. â€Å“Minister Shatter and his colleagues donâ€â„¢t care about us and incidents such as this one prove that the policy of cutbacks to Garda numbers in rural areas is all wrong and must be reversed.â€Â