The north Dublin woman who does not want to be identified because she fears that she will be murdered spoke to the Sunday World about the horror ordeal she allegedly suffered from the father of her now ex-boyfriend.
Such was the gravity of the situation when the terrified woman escaped from a property in Ballymun on Monday night, the gardai’s armed response unit rushed to the scene and broke into the property to search for the culprits and evidence but they had fled.
“Gardaí are investigating a report of false imprisonment at a residential property in Ballymun, Dublin 11, at approximately 8:20pm on 22nd of September 2025,” a spokesman told the Sunday World.
“No injuries have been reported at this time,” he added.
There has also been no arrests in the shocking case with one line in the investigation being that the suspects have fled across the border.
“I can’t sleep, I keep on getting flashbacks – I want to highlight what happened me to say to other women to be very careful in who they trust so that you don’t suffer what I did,” the woman told the Sunday World.
Stock image: Getty
News in 90 Seconds – September 25th
She said it all started on Monday evening when her boyfriend of five months invited her to his home with plans for the couple to go for a meal.
She arrived at the Ballymun property at around 8pm having no idea that the following 20 minutes were to be the moist terrifying of her life.
“He (her then partner) met me when I got out of the taxi and walked me into the house. He was telling me to be quiet because his young brother was asleep.
“Then he locked the back door, he was behind me and told me to keep walking. I went into the sitting room and I was grabbed by his father and thrown on the sofa,” the traumatised woman told the Sunday World.
She did not see her boyfriend again but at this point she recalled that three unknown males wearing balaclavas came into the room.
The woman alleges that her boyfriend’s father who aged in his 40’s then held a knife to her neck and continued to do so for a number of minutes.
“He told me that if I screamed, he would cut my throat and murder me – he was shouting that his son was getting married to someone else which was news to me.
“He said he was in the IRA and was screaming that I was not getting out of the house alive – I was crying at this stage.
“He got a phone call which he said was from top IRA man in Belfast and that he was telling him to finish me off
“One of those wearing balaclavas had a consaw which was on and he was putting it near my legs and it even cut a bit of my tracksuit – he was pretending that he was going to attack me with it,” she explained.
However the consaw did not make contact with her skin and the woman recalls that her ordeal was being videoed on a mobile phone by one of the balaclava clad men.
“They kept saying things like ‘you are going to be murdered, you’re not getting out alive’ and then two of the balaclava men left saying they were going to get something to put my body in – I thought this would be a body bag.
“I was having flashbacks about my dad who died nine months ago and was praying to him.
“At this stage one of them in balaclavas came out with a cup and tried to make me drink the liquid that was in it.
“I pushed it away and didn’t drink it – I thought I was going to be raped. I’m sure whatever was in it was something to knock me out,” she recalled.
It was at this point that she got a text message on her mobile phone which seems to have freaked her attackers out.
“The fella with the balaclava took my phone and ran upstairs saying that the location was on it.
“I saw my chance then jumped off the couch and ran out of the back of the house and onto the street where I was screaming and crying and a girl came to my rescue,” she said.
This woman called gardai who were at the scene in around two minutes and the woman pointed out the property to officers who raided it and recovered a lump hammer as well as the consaw which had been used to threaten her.
“I am convinced my phone saved my life, I don’t know what would have happened if I did not get that text message. If my phone was on silent I would be dead,” she said.
She has since provided gardai with a detailed seven page statement and the clothes she wore on the night have been seized for forensic examination.
Detectives are satisfied that none of those involved in the alleged false imprisonment have links to dissident Republicanism.