Steve Staunton, the manager of the Republic of Ireland soccer team, was last night threatened by a man with what appeared to be a gun while standing outside the team hotel in Portmarnock in north Dublin, writes Martin Wall
Staunton was approached by the man while making a phone call outside the Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links, where the Irish team is based in advance of the game against Holland tomorrow evening.
Sources said that the man began shouting at the Irish team manager before producing what seemed to be a gun. Staunton ran back into the hotel and the man was pursued by security staff, who contacted gardaí. A man was apprehended by gardaí on the nearby beach at Portmarnock shortly afterwards.
Gardaí said last night they were unable to say definitively whether the man had a real gun or a replica, since the object has not yet been recovered. A search for it was taking place on the beach late last night. Garda sources said last night that the man being held was from the Portmarnock area and has a history of psychiatric illness.
A Garda spokeswoman said a man had been arrested at 8pm last night in the Portmarnock area in relation to a firearms offence. She said he was being held at Malahide Garda station under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. It is understood that the Irish team manager made a statement about the incident to gardaí last night.
In a statement last night, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) said it could confirm that an incident had taken place outside the Republic of Ireland team hotel in Portmarnock earlier in the evening. "The matter is now being dealt with by the gardaí. The Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Staunton is absolutely fine and looking forward to training tomorrow," the FAI stated.
The incident at the hotel last night was not the first security alert at the premises in Portmarnock while the Irish soccer team was in residence. In November 2003, an armed raider fired a shotgun blast into the ceiling of the hotel in an area close to where the Irish soccer team were having an evening meal.
In that incident, two armed and masked men burst into the lobby of the hotel where the team were staying before a friendly game with Canada.