Man stumbles into popular Dublin pub after being shot

CUSTOMERS AT a popular Dublin pub were shocked yesterday evening when a man who had been shot stumbled into the busy lounge.

The shooting happened close to the well-known Dropping Well pub in Milltown in South Dublin at about 6.15pm.

Gardaí said the man had been walking in the park beside the pub shortly after 6pm when the shooting took place. He was taken to St Vincent’s hospital where he remained last night. His injuries are not thought to be life threatening.

Locals Paul Meagher and his wife Samantha Drury were having an after-work drink in the pub at the time of the incident.

“We got here at 5.30pm and it happened at about 6.15pm,” said Mr Meagher. “We didn’t hear the shot but I think it happened in the park which is beside the public car park outside the pub.”

The pub, owned by businessman Charlie Chawke, is located on the banks of the river Dodder and beside a popular walking path along its banks. Coincidentally, Mr Chawke himself was the victim of a shooting during a robbery on one of his pubs the Goat Grill in nearby Goatstown in 2003.

Mr Meagher said the injured man was wearing black Adidas tracksuit bottoms and was visibly tattooed. “He just stumbled in the door and up the steps and fell in the lounge area,” said Mr Meagher.

Describing the scene, Mr Meagher said, “there was a big Garda presence straight away, plain clothes and guards in uniform.”

He and his wife said the man, who was later stretchered out of the pub by paramedic staff, was accompanied to the ambulance by a woman in her late 30s who was wearing pink pyjama bottoms and was crying and a man, also in his late 30s, who was wearing a Liverpool jersey.

Some men who said they were attending a business meeting upstairs in the pub at the time of the incident said they came downstairs and were diverted away from where the man was and into the front public bar where gardaí were taking customers’ names.

Bar staff at the pub declined to comment about the incident.