A Donegal garda suffered hand injuries when he prevented an armed robbery in Dublin, it was revealed today.
Buncrana-based Garda Peter McDermott was in the capital helping to protect Britain’s Queen Elizabeth last week.
And while he was off duty last Thursday evening, he tackled two men — one armed with a knife and the other with a screwdriver — at a petrol station on the Naas Road in Clondalkin.
He walked into the shop when the armed raiders struck and tried to take a cash register from the counter.
The robbers then pulled a cash register from the counter and were trying to escape when Garda McDermott tackled them.
During the struggle Garda McDermott received wounds to his hands and was later treated at Tallaght Hospital. The robbers fled the scene empty-handed.
Garda McDermott is no stranger to heroics.
In August 2003, he and a female garda colleague helped a mum deliver her baby in the back of a car near Burnfoot.
And in June 2007, Garda McDermott was involved in a terrifying incident when he was dragged along the road by a car.
A man was later sentenced for reckless endangerment in relation to that offence.