Thieves interrupt a late night poker game at a Roscommon farmhouse and leave with the prize pot.
A group of nine card players taking part in a late night Christmas poker session at Ted Bracken's bungalow at Tremane in County Roscommon are interrupted by three armed raiders. Ted Bracken describes what happened during the heist. The poker players were told to stand up, put their hands on their heads and kneel facing toward the wall.
I'd seen very little after that other than there was a commotion.
One of those robbed by the gang was former Galway Gaelic footballer Mattie McDonagh. He tackled one of the raiders and,
A shot went off.
Detective Garda Louis Browne of Roscommon Garda Station was attending the card game as an on-looker. He was taken hostage and bundled into a car belonging to one of the card players. The gang also escaped with the poker pot. Ted Bracken does not know how much money was taken but it was not the reported figure of £3-4,000. He reckons there was,
Only the matter of a couple of hundred on the table.
An Garda Síochána enquiries to catch the gang and relieve them of their ill gotten gains are underway in Roscommon and several adjoining counties.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 6 January 1985. The reporter is Jim Fahy.
