The Garda Assistant Commissioner, Mr Tony Hickey, who is responsible for the Eastern region, yesterday confirmed he took the decision to call in the Garda Emergency Response Unit to help with the standoff in Abbeylara, Co Longford.
Mr Hickey said Chief Supt Padraic Tansey of Mullingar station first informed him of the standoff at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 19th. He then took the decision to bring in the ERU out of "concern for the local community, for my own personnel and for John Carthy," said Mr Hickey. "I considered it the safest procedure for a successful conclusion."
He said the fact Mr Carthy was in the house with a shotgun, had put his mother out of the house, had fired an estimated eight shots, and that one of the shots had hit a Garda car, led him to the decision. The involvement of the ERU was organised with the help of Chief Supt Basil Walsh in Harcourt Square in Dublin.
Mr Hickey was in regular contact with Chief Supt Tansey until midnight and visited the scene at 9 a.m. the next day. On viewing the situation he said he agreed with the strategic plan being enacted.
The plan involved "containment, negotiation and patience" and the avoidance of any overt action that would unsettle Mr Carthy. The aim was to disarm Mr Carthy and arrest him in a controlled exit from the house. If his exit from the house was uncontrolled and he was armed, the aim was to "shadow him and disarm him with minimum force". He confirmed that armed gardai were ready to discharge their weapons if there was a threat to life.
"It was our optimum desire that we would contain the situation, negotiate, stay as long as possible and have it end peacefully," he added. Mr Patrick Gageby SC, representing the Carthy family, asked Mr Hickey if there were any weapons other than firearms at the scene, and how had the gardai envisaged disarming Mr Carthy.
"In a situation like that, unfortunately, you have to fight fire with fire," said Mr Hickey. He added that, in his experience, every standoff was different and it depended on how the subject and gardai reacted.
Mr Hickey said he monitored some RTE coverage of the standoff to ensure that nothing was being said to exacerbate the situation, because Mr Carthy had a radio. He said he was happy that the RTE interview conducted with Supt John Farrelly, of the Garda Press Office, on the Thursday morning (April 20th) had not inflamed the situation, and the lunchtime coverage was also acceptable. He had no problem with Supt Farrelly's suggestion to bring the media to a safe location overlooking the scene.
Mr Gageby asked Mr Hickey if he was conscious of the effect naming Mr Carthy on radio might have on him. Mr Gageby said an RTE broadcast on the 5-7 Live programme at 5.30 p.m., less than 20 minutes before Mr Carthy was killed, had named him.
Mr Hickey said he had not heard the broadcast but the gardai had no control over the media. "Our attitude is that the media has a job to do as well." He said if they had not been open with the media, "they may have felt we had something to hide".
He said Chief Supt Tansey alerted him that Mr Carthy had come out of the house and had been shot dead at 6 p.m. He then contacted Assistant Commissioner Patrick O'Toole in Garda Headquarters, who said Chief Supt Adrian Culligan, from Cork, would investigate the incident. The ERU handed over their firearms before leaving the division.