Bravery award for Donegal Gardai who confronted out-of-control gunman

Four Donegal Gardai will be honoured for their bravery after confronting an out-of-control gunman in Glenties.

In February 2020, Gardai came under fire from drug and drink-fuelled Stephen Dowling on Mill Road, Glenties. Dowling was carrying a high-powered .256 remington calibre t3x bolt-action rifle and discharged several shots.

Sergeant Edward Griffin, Detective Garda Darren Carter, Detective Garda Enda Jennings and Garda Louis Browne will each be awarded a Silver Scott Medal on Friday.

The Scott Medal is the highest award that can be bestowed by the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána and is awarded for ‘most exceptional bravery and heroism involving the risk of life in the execution of duty’.

The ceremony will take place at the An Garda Síochána National Bureau Headquarters, Walter Scott House. Walter Scott House is named after Colonel Walter Scott.

“I could see madness in his eyes”: A night of terror in Glenties

Detective Garda Enda Jennings recalled how he and a colleague confronted out-of-control gunman Stephen Dowling in Glenties

The Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and The Minister for Justice, Simon Harris TD, will be in attendance.

In 1924 Colonel Walter Scott donated to An Garda Síochána a $1,000 gold bond, in perpetuity, to endow a bravery medal, the Walter Scott Medal, and included the dies from which all Scott medals would be struck.

In February 2022 at Letterkenny Circuit Court, Dowling, of Burren Road in Carlow, was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to ten charges in relation to the night of terror in the Donegal town.

Dowling fired shots through the window of a passing car on the town’s Main Street, shot four bullets through windows of two houses at Church Road and caused damage to the wall of another house on Church Street which he also shot at.

The impact of the incident on the Gardai was heard during a sentencing hearing for Dowling.

Detective Garda Jennings rcalled how Dowling made a deliberate attempt to shoot Gardaí.

“I put myself in the firing line in a bid to stop the madness,” Detective Garda Jennings said, adding that he thought about his wife, his children and his mother duringh the terrifying incident.

“I knew that I was up against a man with a superior firearm. I was outgunned and the odds were stacked against me. I had to do a duty to protect the public and unarmed colleagues. . . I could see the madness in his eyes.”

Detective Garda Carter told how he 'feared I would be forced to take the life of another human'.

He said: “Those thoughts have never left me. I never thought that this would happen in a rural Donegal town.”

Sergeant Griffin, who had served in the force for 37 years, including 18 years in border stations and also for a time in Dublin city centre, told how he has been involved in previous shooting incidents.

Sgt Grffin said he had ‘never witnessed such a terrible act’ as on that night in Glenties.

“It was nothing shot of a miracle that a life was not lost,” Sgt Griffin said in a victim impact statement. The incident, he said, had a huge impact on his life and he was off work for a number of months.

Detective Garda Carter remarked to Garda Browne ‘I thought you were gone’, a comment that made Garda Browne realise that his life had been in serious danger’

He said: “It was a roller coaster of emotion and fear.”