{"id":637961,"date":"2026-08-15T03:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T03:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/637961\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T03:00:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T03:00:21","slug":"inmate-who-died-at-wheatfield-prison-named-as-gardai-investigate-suspected-stabbing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/637961\/","title":{"rendered":"Inmate who died at Wheatfield Prison named as garda\u00ed investigate suspected stabbing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A 39-year-old man who died after a suspected fatal assault in his cell at <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/maintopics\/prison_topic-5326892.html\">Wheatfield Prison<\/a> has been named as Brendan Gahan.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Gahan, who was from Tallaght in Dublin, was serving a sentence of two years and nine months for possession of drugs for sale or supply.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He had been sentenced in February after pleading guilty to the offence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He was in a two-person cell when he was allegedly attacked, possibly with a knife or other bladed weapon, on Thursday night, it is understood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A knife or other bladed weapon may have been used in the assault, it is understood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/maintopics\/an-garda-s%C3%ADoch%C3%A1na_topic-5076620.html\">Garda\u00ed<\/a> are investigating Mr Gahan&#8217;s death in Wheatfield Prison in Clondalkin, Dublin 22.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A Family Liaison Officer has been assigned to support the family of the deceased.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The results of a post-mortem examination will determine the direction of the investigation, a garda statement said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Investigation into prison death<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">One prison source said that drone deliveries of contraband are now so common in prisons that they would not be surprised if a prisoner was able to access a weapon for an attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised if a knife or a shiv was involved,&#8221; they said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Some 384 illegal drone deliveries were detected by the Irish Prison Service (IPS) in 2025, with 212 of those detected at Wheatfield Prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">However, following the installation of a metallic net at Wheatfield, drone deliveries dropped by 73%, to 12 deliveries detected by the IPS during the first four months of this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The IPS confirmed a \u201cdeath in custody\u201d at the prison on Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;All deaths in custody are investigated by the Irish Prison Service, the Inspector of Prisons and An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, where circumstances warrant,&#8221; a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;The cause of death is determined by the coroner\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;The Irish Prison Service wishes to express our condolences to the deceased\u2019s family and friends. Next of kin have been informed,&#8221; they added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 39-year-old man who died after a suspected fatal assault in his cell at Wheatfield Prison has been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,33950,7,8],"class_list":["post-637961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-prison","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117097295249010735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637961","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=637961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}