{"id":205712,"date":"2025-12-22T21:03:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T21:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/205712\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T21:03:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T21:03:06","slug":"drive-by-shooting-in-rathkeale-under-investigation-amid-heavy-garda-presence-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/205712\/","title":{"rendered":"Drive-by shooting in Rathkeale under investigation amid heavy Garda presence \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/an-garda-siochana\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/an-garda-siochana\/\">Garda\u00ed<\/a> are investigating a drive-by shooting at a house in  Rathkeale, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/limerick\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/limerick\/\">Co Limerick<\/a>, on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A number of shots were discharged from a firearm at a house located in the west Limerick town.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sources said a large Garda presence was visible in the town all day Sunday and Monday in response to tensions in the community in the wake of a number of violent incidents. .<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Uniformed garda\u00ed supported by members of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/garda-emergency-response-unit\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/garda-emergency-response-unit\/\">Garda Emergency Response Unit<\/a> were conducting checkpoints in the town on Sunday prior to the gun attack. The Garda helicopter was also present, providing air support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A Garda spokesman said the force was investigating the discharge of a firearm in Rathkeale at around 9.15pm on Sunday, adding that \u201cno injuries were reported\u201d and \u201ca technical examination of the scene has been conducted by the Divisional Scenes of Crime Unit\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cInvestigations are ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Local Fine Gael councillor Adam Teskey, a former chair of the local community joint policing committee, said he has been \u201crepeatedly calling for extra garda resources\u201d in the town to assist local Supt Michael Fleming and his force.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Rathkeale\u2019s population has surged in recent days due to an influx of Traveller men and women, who gather  over the festival period to celebrate marriages and christenings at St Mary\u2019s Church in the town.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The vast majority of visiting Traveller families are peaceful and have never engaged in violence or public disorder. However, some individuals with international crime links are under investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/crime-law\/courts\/2025\/12\/22\/man-jailed-for-four-years-after-hitting-garda-with-car-and-reversing-toward-him\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Man jailed for four years after hitting garda with car and reversing toward himOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Just over two weeks ago garda\u00ed, directed by Supt Fleming, conducted a search-and-arrest operation in Rathkeale as part of an investigation into money laundering.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Supt Fleming said  the operation  aimed to target \u201cthe activities\u201d of individuals involved in \u201cserious criminality on a transnational basis\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Approximately \u20ac400,000 in cash and bank accounts was seized at 11 locations in the town.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Suspected rhino horns were also recovered during the raids. These can fetch large sums of money on the black market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On November 30th this year, a house on New Road in the town was shot at while a number of people, including a child, were present. No injuries were reported at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Last October a van was petrol bombed, while feuding has also seen a man shot and seriously wounded in the past 12 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed are investigating a drive-by shooting at a house in Rathkeale, Co Limerick, on Sunday night. A number&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,61,60,1396,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-205712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-limerick","12":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}