Private Ciara Shanahan was on duty at the gate post of Renmore Barracks on the night of August 15, 2024, when she noticed someone acting suspiciously outside.
The following account from military sources and court records about what happened next, all occurred within just 90 seconds.
The incident resulted in a now 17-year-old juvenile, who may not be named because of his age, being convicted of attempted murder, and sentenced to eight years in prison. Garda evidence in court indicates his attack was pre-planned.
Shanahan informed the Guard Commander, Corporal Daniel Padden, of her observation, so seconds later, when Fr Paul Murphy arrived in his new SUV, Padden, and fellow armed Barrack Guard, Private Dylan Murphy, were already on heightened alert in the glass-fronted, ground floor Guard Room, which overlooks the main gate from several metres away.
The military chaplain was approached by his attacker from the righthand-side of his slow-moving car, as he idled up to the barracks gate after a trip to a gym. The youth approached the priest under the guise of needing assistance.
The barrier was down across the barracks entrance, but the high, cast iron gates were open. Fr Murphy’s vehicle came to a halt at the barrier, as per protocol for Defence Forces’ members entering the installation.
Now known to have been then a 16-year-old teenager, in the dark, the tall youngster lunged in through the half-open car window and attacked the 52-year-old chaplain with an 8 inch, serrated hunting knife at approximately 10.45pm. Pvt Shanahan, unarmed, attempted to deter the attacker from behind.
As Fr Murphy fended and fought off the stabbing youth, he released the brake in his automatic transmission jeep, and crashed through the security barrier, with his attacker still half inside the driver’s side window of his car.
Fr Murphy received seven defensive wounds to hands and arm, and was covered in blood, as his car rolled to a stop 15m inside Dún Uí Mhaoilíosa. The boy attacked with such ferocity, that one strike from his knife pierced the roof of the vehicle.
Padden and Geraghty raced from the Guard Room with rifles readied. Shanahan distracted the attacker from Fr Murphy, while Geraghty and Padden screamed warnings, and shouldered their Steyr assault rifles. Geraghty fired three rapid warning shots, followed by two more. He slung his rifle, then rugby tackled the stunned, but still-knife-wielding attacker, while Cpl Padden covered him with his weapon, and scanned for other individuals or approaching threats.
Geraghty forced the attacker to ground, rapidly disarmed him, and pinned him prone, while comrades came rushing to assist.
As the 90 seconds of initial mayhem passed, the pressing concerns were fears there were explosives attached to the assailant, now writhing beneath Geraghty’s body weight, the extent of bloodstained Fr Murphy’s unknown wounds, and whether other attacks were imminent.
Alarm raised
At the sound of gunshots, the on-duty orderly officer, orderly sergeant and a classified number of on-duty soldiers allocated to the barrack’s rapid reaction force, ran to the scene, while other perimeter patrols were activated.
A squad of solders fully immobilised the front gate attacker, while others began immediate medical aid on Fr Murphy, prioritising his airways, breathing and bleeding. The armed Barrack Guard and Military Police took up defensive positions. The Ambulance service and an Garda Scíochána were immediately called for.
Dún ui Mhaoilíosa was already in an almost full lockdown as the flashing blue lights arrived, minutes later.
Unbeknownst to the surrounding, sleepy Galway city suburb of Renmore – well used to gunfire from the nearby army firing range – on that summer’s night, Ireland had experienced what Europol later described as its first radical, Islamist attack.
Fr Murphy (52 ), Cpl Padden (29 ), Pvt Shanahan (22 ) and Pvt Geraghty (19 ), all of the Galway-based 1st Infantry Battalion (An Chéad Chathlán Coisithe ), are to be awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for their actions that night.
