Kilkenny post office raider tackled by three local men

Three members of the public jumped on a man who had just robbed a post office in Mullinavat, Co Kilkenny.

The raider went into the post office at 12.30pm on Wednesday with what appeared to be a gun and demanded money.

The raider escaped with a bag containing a substantial amount of money.

Local man Billy Walsh was in the post office at the time. He said after the robbery he "ran straight away out the door and roared at your man and he was walking calmly down the street but as soon as I roared at him he made a run for it."

His son was in a van across the road with another local man Fergal Tynan. Liam Walsh heard his father shouting.

“My dad just came out and shouted ‘he’s robbed the post office, get him’ so I saw him running and I tore off after him in the van and he tripped. We jumped out of the van and we caught him,” he said.

Billy Walsh added: “By the time he got a chance to get up after tripping we were down over him . . . We just held him up and told him he wasn’t going anywhere, put him up against the door and kept him there until the guards arrived.

“I didn’t see a gun at that stage but just the natural instinct was just to go and try and help, it’s just your first reaction, that’s what you do.”

The man didn’t struggle and when Billy went back up to the post office a woman there told him there was a gun left there.

Imitation gun

Gardaí believe the gun is an imitation. The man they arrested afterwards is in his 20s and is being held at

Thomastown

Garda station.

All the money has been returned and gardaí have praised the work of the three local men.

“Thank God it wasn’t a real gun,” said Billy Walsh added that he has “no regrets and thinking back we were a bit mad but we all just went to see could we catch the man and that was it.”

Liam Walsh said that when they tackled the man all he said was “I’m sorry” a number of times and put his hands up.

“All we could do was do our best,” Liam Walsh added.