GARDAÍ BELIEVE a gang that fired a shot during a post office raid in Co Wexford, wounding the postmistress and her son, are from Dublin and have been involved in a number of recent raids in the southeast.
The post office in Oulart, which was targeted by the armed gang just before 10am on Tuesday, was open for business again yesterday morning.
The injured postmistress, Chris Dempsey (66), was working behind the counter yesterday.
She was grazed on the right elbow by shotgun pellets when one of the raiders fired one of three guns they were carrying, including a full-barrel shotgun, a sawn-off shotgun and a rifle.
Ms Dempsey’s son John (31) was more seriously wounded in the leg but is expected to make a full recovery.
The gang entered the post office and demanded money.
When Ms Dempsey refused to hand over cash a shot was fired through a door inside the premises.
Garda sources said a number of young children, believed to be members of Ms Dempsey’s wider family, were in the room into which the shot was fired and were lucky to escape without injury.
The raiders escaped with a small sum of money in a Nissan car which was later found burned out at Teapot Lane, nearly a mile from the post office.
A second car, which was also believed to have been used by the four raiders, was found burned out in Gorey, Co Wexford.
There was some speculation that the gang was behind a robbery at Seán Óg’s Hotel, Kilmuckridge, Co Wexford, at about 4.30am on Tuesday, before carrying out the raid in Oulart.
Gardaí though have found no evidence linking the two crimes.
However, DNA samples taken from both crime scenes are being cross checked against samples taken from two suspects in their 20s who were arrested in Courtown on Tuesday for questioning about the hotel robbery.
The two men are from Ballyfermot and Clondalkin in Dublin.
They are members of a ram-raiding Dublin gang operating in the southeast.
Gardaí believe that this gang was behind the theft of a bank machine on May 1st from the wall of a bank in Tinahely, Co Wicklow, during which a stolen digger was used to remove the bank machine.
The Bank of Ireland branch was largely demolished as a result.