Man arrested after hostage siege ends without injury

AN 11-hour siege ended without injury yesterday morning after a man in Tallaght had thrown his girlfriend out of her house and taken a friend hostage.

Gardai were alerted after a 25-year-old woman from Cushlawn Park, Tallaght, was thrown out of her home by her 27-year-old boyfriend at about 8 p.m. on Monday night.

"It was a domestic incident and there was drink taken," said Supt Pat Fennessy, of Tallaght Garda station.

When gardai arrived at the house the man had nailed closed the doors and windows and was refusing to come out. He had also piled some loose coal, two bags of coal, and a child's buggy against the door. Another man, aged 23 and from Ballyfermot, was with the man in the house.

"At one stage he was holding the other fellow out the window, band threatening the man," said a neighbour, who did not want to be named. He also appeared at the sitting-room window, with a knife to the throat of the younger man.

However, he did not make any particular demands or any particular complaints. Neighbours said the woman had complained only that she had been thrown out of the house, and that it was her house.

It is understood the couple have two children, a four-year-old girl and a 10-month-old boy, and that the house was given to the woman some months ago as a lone parent. The children were not in the house during the drama.

Neighbours said that when a crowd gathered outside the house to watch the siege, the man called on gardai to move them away. "The gardai moved their cars and the crowd away and then he seemed to calm down."

Gardai believe the man later went to sleep. However, they decided it was safer not to break into the house.

At around 7 a.m. the man asked for a packet of cigarette papers, and around 7.15 am. he emerged from the house.

"They came out the window," said a neighbour. "He was smoking one of his `rollies' and he wasn't as tense as I thought he would be. The other fellow looked a bit desperate, like he was glad it was over."

The two men were taken away in separate Garda cars.

A file is to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in relation to the incident.