Community will gather to remember Garda Reynolds
Garda Patrick Reynolds died serving the community of Tallaght in 1982

Community will gather to remember Garda Reynolds

A SERVICE of Remembrance will be held to mark the 40th anniversary of the tragic death of Garda Patrick Reynolds, who died serving the community of Tallaght on February 20, 1982.

The service will be held in St Dominic’s Church at 11.45am on Sunday, February 20, to mark the anniversary of Garda Reynolds, who was killed when he was shot in the back when responding to an anonymous tip.

In the early hours of February 20, 1982, Garda Reynolds, with four other colleagues, arrived at Avonbeg Flats after receiving an anonymous phone tip-off that three suspicious looking men were seen carrying bags into a flat at Avonbeg Gardens in Tallaght.

On entering the flat the Gardai found a gang of six heavily armed men and women counting the proceeds of a bank robbery which had taken place in Askeaton, Co Limerick a couple of days previously.

The gang members began to panic and attempted to flee from the scene.

On hearing the commotion Garda Reynolds ran towards the flat itself when he was confronted by one of the gunmen, who fired at him twice, fatally wounding him.

The chief suspect, Belfast man, Sean ‘Bap’ Hughes, was tracked down in France in late 1982 and in 1997 he was captured by an off duty garda after robbing a Bank of Ireland in Foxford, Mayo.

Hughes was tried for the capital murder of Garda Reynolds in March 2000, but the court did not accept the prosecution case against Hughes, and he was acquitted of the murder.

Garda Reynolds was awarded posthumously the Scott Gold Medal on September 29,  1983, and on the 40th Anniversary of his untimely passing the community will gather to mark the life, the service and the sacrifice of Garda Patrick ‘Gerry’ Reynolds- a son, a brother, a friend, a colleague and a public servant.

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