Adrian Donohoe (14 January 1972 – 25 January 2013) was an Irish detective in the Garda Síochána (Irish police) based at Dundalk Garda Station in County Louth, who was fatally shot in Bellurgan (near Jenkinstown, County Louth) on 25 January 2013 during a robbery by an armed gang of five people on a credit union. He was the first garda officer to be murdered in the line of duty since 1996, and was afforded a full state funeral.
On 4 March 2018 at Dundalk District Court, 27-year-old Aaron Brady from New Road, Crossmaglen, County Armagh, was charged with Donohoe's murder and plead not guilty. Brady's trial began at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on 28 January 2020.
On 12 August 2020, 29-year-old Aaron Brady was found guilty of the capital murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe and was sentenced to the mandatory term of 40 years imprisonment. Brady was also sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for robbery at Lordship Credit Union.
In July 2021, 33-year-old Brendan Treanor from Dundalk was charged with the armed robbery of the Lordship credit union on the night Donohoe was murdered.
Also in July 2021, James Patrick Gerard Flynn or "Jimmy Flynn", 30, originally from South Armagh was arrested by National Crime Agency officers in London on foot of a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by Gardai, after the Director of Public Prosecutions approved charging Flynn with armed robbery of the credit union on the night Donohoe was murdered. It is reported Flynn had spent time in Boston after Donohoe's murder and was described as convicted murderer Aaron Brady's "best friend".
Jimmy Flynn and Brendan Treanor went on trial in the Special Criminal Court in February 2023, charged with the robbery of the credit union in Lordship and also with conspiracy to enter residential premises with the intention of stealing car keys. Legal proceedings ended in May 2023 after 55 days of legal argument, with verdicts due to be delivered in September 2023.
On 11 September 2023, James Flynn was found guilty of breaking into a house and stealing the keys of a car which was later used in the robbery of Lordship Credit Union and the capital murder of Adrian Donohoe. Flynn was found not guilty of the additional charge of robbery of €7,000 at the Credit Union. Brendan Treanor was found not guilty of both charges, however judge Mr Justice Hunt stated there was "clear evidence that establishes that Treanor is a member of a criminal gang along with others and was involved before during and after the robbery", but that charges of membership of a criminal gang had not been brought before the court. Flynn was remanded in custody for sentencing in November 2023.
Personal life Adrian Donohoe was born on 14 January 1972 in Kilnaleck, County Cavan to parents Peggy and Hugh Donohoe. He grew up on the family farm with his three brothers – Alan, Colm and Martin, and two sisters – Anne and Mary. He was a keen Gaelic footballer, and at he played midfield for his local club before going on to represent Cavan GAA at Under-21 level. He attended nearby primary and secondary schools, before joining the Garda Síochána in 1994. Two of his brothers also joined the force, and he met his future wife Caroline at the Garda Síochána College in Templemore, County Tipperary.
Caroline Donohoe, from County Clare and who also had family members serving with the Gardaí, was stationed with the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) in Dundalk Garda Station – the same building where her husband worked – and the couple had two young children, a boy and a girl aged 6 and 7 respectively, at the time of his death. Donohoe was described as a "father figure" in his community, and played and coached for his local GAA club, St Patrick's GFC, on the Cooley Peninsula. He served his entire 19-year career in Dundalk, rising to the rank of detective. The Donohoes lived 4 km away from where the shooting occurred, and both their children attended Bellurgan National School, directly across the road from the incident.
Shooting and robbery
Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe and his colleague Detective Garda Joe Ryan were on a routine two-person cash escort on the evening of Friday, 25 January 2013. Ryan was driving an unmarked police car (a Toyota Avensis) with the call sign Papa Bravo 16; both detectives were wearing civilian clothing and carrying concealed Irish police issue sidearms (SIG Sauer P226 9mm pistols). The Garda Síochána are primarily an unarmed police force; however, certain units of the service are armed (such as detective units), and up to 25% of members are licensed to carry firearms. Although Garda detectives on cash escort duties had formerly been issued with Uzi submachine guns, a decision had been made by Garda authorities the previous year to withdraw the Uzi, as it was deemed unsuitable for use in confined spaces.
The pair were en route to meet local credit union officials at Omeath, Cooley and the Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan, who would then travel in a three-car convoy to a bank in Dundalk town to lodge takings in a nightsafe. This was regular practice, and the protocol had been recently upgraded from an unarmed, uniformed garda escort to an armed, plain-clothes detective escort, following a robbery that happened at the credit union 18 months prior when €22,500 in cash and cheques was taken. There were no casualties in the previous crime. At 8:49pm, a dark coloured Volkswagen Passat was observed to have driven to the end of a laneway close to the back of Lordship credit union before returning onto the main road, which was subsequently determined to have dropped off four members of the robbery team.
At 9:30 pm, Donohoe and Ryan entered the car park of the Lordship Credit Union premises and they parked, as did another car that was accompanying them from another credit union branch. They both parked beside the car belonging to officials from Lordship, and waited for the credit union workers to get into their cars for the trip to Dundalk. At this point, a navy-blue coloured Volkswagen Passat – that had been waiting stationary on the hard shoulder of the road – drove across the road and blocked the entrance. Four members of the gang were hiding behind a wall surrounding the car park, all wearing balaclavas, while a fifth was driving the car. Two gang members quickly approached the detectives' car from the driver's side, and as Donohoe opened his passenger side door and stepped out to investigate why the car had blocked the entrance, he was instantly shot at close range in the head with a long barrelled shotgun by a masked raider. A single shot was fired without warning across the roof of the unmarked Garda car. It was dark, and before Ryan could realise what was taking place, he was held at gunpoint and ordered out of his car and onto the ground by a number of gang members possessing a shotgun, handgun and a hammer. Neither officer had time to draw their weapons. The raiders then broke into a car belonging to credit union staff from Lordship, which was carrying cash and cheques to the value of about €40,000, and threatened them but only took a bag with €4,000, mistakenly leaving behind more than €30,000. Ryan and the credit union staff were left physically uninjured as the gang of five fled the scene, but Ryan was dispossessed of his car keys in an attempt to hinder his reaction. It was only after the perpetrators had escaped that the alarm could be raised.
The emergency services pronounced Donohoe dead shortly after their arrival, despite the frantic efforts of his colleague Ryan to save his life. Garda Headquarters scrambled all available units in an attempt to catch the fleeing suspects, and alerted the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). However, it is understood they had escaped to Northern Ireland before the border was secured by police on both sides. The Republic of Ireland-United Kingdom border can be crossed by car in around 10 minutes from the Lordship Credit Union, and neither force is allowed to enter neighbouring territory. A Garda helicopter briefly entered UK airspace with permission during the search. A PSNI helicopter was also deployed during the search in the north. It is believed that after crossing the Ballymacscanlon roundabout outside Dundalk, the Passat drove up the Whitemills Road before crossing the border near Forkhill, which was approximately 9 kilometers from Lordship credit union. The Passat was then observed driving past Cortamlet primary school near Newtownhamilton in south County Armagh in convoy with another saloon car just after 10pm; a few days after the robbery, a Passat was found burnt out nearby on Cumsons Road, which is a remote forested laneway between the villages of Darkley and Newtownhamilton.
Investigation The PSNI carried out an extensive technical examination of the Passat and the surrounding area. This area became a focus of the investigation. The vehicle, a "graphite navy blue" in colour 2008 Dublin registered automatic Volkswagen Passat, was linked by detectives to the murder and it was confirmed that it had been stolen from the Clogherhead area of County Louth earlier that week, between 11:30 pm on Tuesday, 22 January and 4:30 am on Wednesday, 23 January. Gardaí and the PSNI believe another getaway car was used to collect those involved in the crime after setting alight the original getaway car, and that there was more than five suspects involved in the overall perpetration of the crime.
A full forensic examination was carried out at the scene over three days by the Garda Technical Bureau, assisted by the Divisional Scenes of Crime Unit. The Divisional Search Team was called in to search the vicinity of the scene. The hammer used by the raiders to break the window of one of the credit union cars was recovered at the crime scene.
Deputy State Pathologist Khalid Jaber examined the body at the site of the incident and subsequently conducted an autopsy at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. As is standard practice when a garda loses their life, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) was notified, and their officials visited the scene.
Then Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan (who retired in March 2014) attended a case conference at Dundalk Garda Station on the weekend after Donohoe's death, where an incident room was established for the duration of the investigation. Commissioner Callinan announced the allocation of 150 senior detectives to the case. National specialist units were assigned to the investigation, including the Special Detective Unit (SDU), National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) and Organised Crime Unit (OCU). The force's armed intervention teams – Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and Regional Support Unit (RSU) – were placed on alert in the aftermath.
In the early stages of the investigation, there were over 1,000 Garda officers attached to the investigation, making it one of the largest criminal investigations ever undertaken in the history of the state.
Gardaí established that five males were involved in the shooting and robbery itself, and belong to a larger criminal gang operating in the border region. Those responsible were believed to have fled to Northern Ireland after the killing, and remained there for some weeks. The leader of the five-man gang and main suspect in the murder was identified as a young man from the Crossmaglen area of south Armagh. It is understood he was known to Detective Donohoe, providing a possible motive for his murder. However, Donohoe was originally not scheduled to take part in the credit union cash escort, making a late shift change with the officer who was originally scheduled to take part in the escort.