{"id":419872,"date":"2026-04-04T11:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T11:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/419872\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T11:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T11:31:16","slug":"paranoid-drug-user-jailed-over-guns-and-bulletproof-vest-found-in-raid-at-limerick-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/419872\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Paranoid\u2019 drug user jailed over guns and bulletproof vest found in raid at Limerick home"},"content":{"rendered":"

A LIMERICK man who had two rifles and a bulletproof vest at his home has been sentenced to three years imprisonment.<\/p>\n

Michael O\u2019Callaghan, aged 23, with an address at Distillery View, Thomondgate in the city had pleaded guilty<\/a><\/strong> to possession of ammunition, an improvised firearm and two rifles under the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act 1990.<\/p>\n

During a sentencing hearing, Limerick Circuit Court heard that on February 22, 2023, garda\u00ed carried out a search of Mr O\u2019Callaghan\u2019s residence in Thomondgate.<\/p>\n

In the upstairs bedroom of the property, they found two black air rifles and an improvised firearm which was hidden in the sleeve of a coat jacket.<\/p>\n

A bulletproof vest and one round of ammunition were also discovered by gardai during the search.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT |\u00a0Limerick service station reopens 10 months after it was torched in arson attack<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan was arrested and during interview he subsequently admitted to being the owner of the items.<\/p>\n

Imposing sentence, Judge Colin Daly noted the firearm did not fire when tested by ballistics experts.<\/p>\n

The judge also noted there was no evidence that any of the weapons were used or brandished by Mr O\u2019Callaghan at any point.<\/p>\n

The court heard the accused had admitted he was a drug user and that he had been receiving threats in relation to outstanding debts he owed at the time.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan told garda\u00ed he had acquired the weapons because he was paranoid and feared for his safety.<\/p>\n

Having considered the evidence and submissions, Judge Daly said that Mr O\u2019Callaghan had high culpability, given he had sought out the weapons for his own use.<\/p>\n

However, he noted that it didn\u2019t appear he had acquired them for any other \u201cmore sinister reason\u201d.<\/p>\n

In mitigation, Judge Daly highlighted the accused\u2019s early guilty plea and its value to garda\u00ed, the State and the court – in terms of money and time.<\/p>\n

He said what had occurred was a \u201cserious matter\u201d but that Mr O\u2019Callaghan had co-operated fully with investigating garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT |\u00a0Hospital reveals plans for multi-million euro expansion of clinic in Limerick<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The court heard that the man has since \u201ccleaned himself up\u201d after he spent a period living in England with his grandfather.<\/p>\n

The judge noted the remorse expressed by Mr O’Callaghan in a letter of apology penned by the accused.<\/p>\n

After formally convicting Mr O\u2019Callaghan, Judge Daly imposed a four-year prison sentence, with the final year suspended for a period of six years.<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A LIMERICK man who had two rifles and a bulletproof vest at his home has been sentenced to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,1844,83705,7587,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-419872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-limerick","tag-limerick-circuit-court","tag-limerick-city","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116346217234529469","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}