Brave woman foils raiders

ASSAULT VICTIM pictured yesterday evening at her home in Corheens, Breaffy, where she disturbed a burglary on Saturday last. She was assaulted while trying to raise the alarm.?Pic: Michael McLaughlin

Brave woman foils raiders


Castlebar businesswoman assaulted as she fends off robbers

Edwin McGreal
edwinmcgreal@mayonews.ie

A Castlebar woman bravely put herself at great risk in order to fend off brazen robbers who had entered her home/business premises on Saturday evening last.
Regina Sweeney was getting ready to close up The Elegant Touch bridal boutique at herself and her husband’s house at Corheens, Breaffy just before 5pm when she heard a smashing noise downstairs.
She went downstairs to see a 6’4” tall man in a balaclava standing with his back to her in the hallway and could hear at least one more man going through another room.
She could have turned around and went back up the stairs until they left but instead she made a brave dash for the alarm at the front door in the hope that its sounding would force the intruders to flee.
Speaking to The Mayo News last night, Regina Sweeney said she couldn’t let the thieves ruin a business she had worked hard over nine years to build up.
“Normally I’d be the very first person who would have said that if I found myself in that situation I’d run as far in the other direction as I could but when I was in that situation on Saturday, something clicked.
“I had worked so hard for this business and I had so many of my brides’ dresses there. I wasn’t going to let anything happen the dresses, just weeks before some weddings. So I said I’d fight for it,” she admitted.
And fight for it she literally did have to. As she made a beeline for the alarm, the 6’4” thief grabbed her plaited hair to pull her back. She hit her head off a wrought iron coat hanger but managed to kick backwards at him to release herself for enough time to set the alarm.
“I set the alarm and he pushed me into the wall and threw me back against the stairs and I fell forward on my knees. My head started to ring and I think I passed out but I remember waking up and I was on the floor and they were gone,” she recalls.
She immediately rang her husband, Declan Sweeney, a garda detective based in Castlebar. Ironically he was getting ready for an evening’s work in search of a criminal gang responsible for a number of robberies in the area. All the while, they were out in Declan and Regina’s house.
Gardaí arrived shortly afterwards but the men involved had made their getaway. A chase subsequently ensued later that evening.
Regina - a daughter of Kathleen and the late Liam Coady from Castlebar - sustained a lot of bruising on her back and face in the attack and has to go to the Galway Clinic today (Tuesday) to see if she has a broken cheekbone from when she was thrown against the wall by the thief. However what upset her most was the money which was taken, particularly charity money.
“They took a substantial amount of cash from us which is not at all nice in these hard times. They took charity money I had fundraised for the Ice Ball for Mayo-Roscommon Hospice, that’s really upsetting,” said Regina.
Though she may be badly bruised and very much shaken, Regina feels relieved that she wasn’t more seriously injured.
“I’m looking at it from the point of view that I was very lucky that I got the alarm set off and that they didn’t do any more to me. They did enough to me though but I was so lucky to arm the alarm.
“The cover was open - I wouldn’t have had time if it was closed and I knew I hadn’t enough time to set off the panic alarm which would contact the Garda Station but I just about managed to key in the number to arm the alarm and it went off and they fled. It was by the grace of God that I got it armed,” she said. And her own bravery and diligence in such a frightening situation.
Gardaí are looking for any information on a silver saloon car, believed to be a Subaru Legacy 2004-2007 model which was spotted at the scene of a number of burglaries in Ballina, Castlebar and County Sligo. Anyone who has any information is asked to contact Castlebar Garda Station on 094 9022222 or Ballina Garda Station on 096 21422.

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