The Garda Ombudsman has opened an investigation into the arrest and death of Evan Fitzgerald following a complaint by a relative of the deceased young man, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
asserted
Mail → open → Sunday
The arrest in a sting operation of Mr Fitzgerald was first brought to public attention when the MoS published the contents of a Protected Disclosure made by a Garda whistleblower.
asserted
MoS → bring → whistleblower
Mr Fitzgerald killed himself in a Carlow shopping centre in May 2025, one week before he was due to face trial on firearms charges.
uncertain
he → kill → charges
Earlier this year, the MoS published details of a book of evidence for his trial – that never happened – along with details of videos where he had inferred that guilt over getting his co-accused friends arrested had contributed to his suicide.
asserted
friends → publish → suicide
The MoS disclosed in May that a Garda undercover officer had met Evan in a park near Fagan’s Pub in Drumcondra a period of time before the ‘sting’, in which Mr Fitzgerald and two friends were arrested at gunpoint.
uncertain
Fitzgerald → disclose → gunpoint
Gardaí had schooled Mr Fitzgerald to set up encrypted email accounts in a case of what Senator Michael McDowell has called ‘entrapment’.
asserted
McDowell → school → what
Senator McDowell believes that gardaí should have intervened at an earlier stage to prevent a questionable sting operation, that saw three young men arrested at gunpoint, brought to court and one of them committing suicide before going to full trial.
asserted
one → believe → trial
Evan's friends leaving court
Last week, an RTÉ documentary broadcast claims by whistleblowers that had been previously made public by the MoS – which included the revelation about the sting operation.
uncertain
which → leave → operation
The protected disclosures of two Garda whistleblowers had been published by the MoS and Irish Daily Mail in a series of articles since 2023.
asserted
disclosures → protect → 2023
RTÉ publicly identified the whistleblowers via on-screen interviews while identifying two new whistleblowers who were allegedly penalised after they were tasked with investigating the protected disclosures of the first two whistleblowers.
uncertain
they → identify → whistleblowers
This week, Mr McDowell spoke to the MoS about his remaining concerns with the Evan Fitzgerald case.
asserted
McDowell → speak → case
The former attorney general and former justice minister confirmed that ‘Fiosrú have reopened their investigation into the whole thing’.
asserted
Fiosrú → confirm → thing
Mr McDowell said Mr Fitzgerald’s ‘family’ had been central to the reopening of the case.
asserted
family → say → case
Mr McDowell, who has met with some of the Garda whistleblowers and championed their cause in the Seanad, said he has been shocked by the most recent revelations.
asserted
he → meet → revelations
‘I’m pretty shocked by it [the stream of Garda whistleblower revelations], I have to say and disappointed,’ said Mr McDowell, ‘I’m even more surprised by the reaction of the gardaí to it all.
asserted
I → ’m → it
Mr McDowell was particularly taken aback by a Newstalk interview given by an assistant commissioner in the wake of a renewed publicity of protected disclosures.
asserted
McDowell → take → disclosures
The senator criticised the response of ‘current assistant commissioner Paul Cleary in deciding to uphold the interference with the independent investigators [of whistleblowers claims] and prohibiting Colonel Ray Lane from giving evidence.
uncertain
senator → criticise → evidence
Last year, the MoS published details of a protected disclosure which had revealed that then-Garda Commissioner Drew Harris had prevented an Army expert brought in by Superintendent Brian O’Reilly – who had been in charge of the Garda Firearms Unit – from investigation defective ammunition.
asserted
who → publish → ammunition
Mr McDowell said he plans to speak on the whistleblowers’ plight in the Seanad on Tuesday.
asserted
he → say → Tuesday
He said: ‘I think that there are governance issues which run right to the top of the gardaí and that therefore are the concern of the Minister [for Justice Jim O’Callaghan],’ said Mr McDowell.
asserted
McDowell → say → Justice
Mr McDowell discussed the revelations made to the MoS of the book of evidence.
asserted
McDowell → discuss → evidence
He recalled that he had discussed, in the Seanad, how undercover gardaí posing as firearms dealers had spoken to Mr Fitzgerald and were able to ‘persuade him to buy a burner phone.’
asserted
gardaí → recall → phone
Undated family handout photo issued by An Garda Siochana of Evan Fitzgerald, from Kiltegan in Co.Wicklow
Mr McDowell also confirmed his concerns about the fact that a pivotal undercover garda – the one who had met Mr Fitzgerald in person posing as an arms dealer – was omitted from the witness list provided in the book of evidence.
asserted
who → issue → evidence
‘That’s right, he was always going to be kept off the witness list,’ said Mr McDowell.
asserted
McDowell → ’ → list
‘If there had been a trial, I mean, Evan was dead by the time the trial was due to come on, but if there had been a trial, the fact that there was no statement from them [was unusual]
‘
asserted
fact → mean → them
In Evan’s own confession that he put down, he exhibited the text which urged him to buy a burner phone.
asserted
which → put → phone
Instead of doing that, if they had come out and sat him down and talked to sense to him….
asserted
they → do → him
When it was put to the former justice minister that when this course of action had been posited to the gardaí, that other gardaí within the force had spoken to the MoS to say that the undercover unit should have intervened with the young man rather than continue, Mr McDowell highlighted problems with the media coverage of Garda activity
Mr McDowell said to me: ‘John, you’re not a crime correspondent.
asserted
you → put → me
All of your colleagues, journalists who are crime correspondents are handled by the Park [Garda HQ in the Phoenix Park], they take the line.
asserted
they → handle → line
He stressed that a better course of action should have been to sit the young man down before he had been enticed into a sting operation with the intention of committing a crime.
asserted
he → stress → crime
Ultimately, the sting operation saw him buy disabled firearms from undercover gardaí posing as gun dealers, who then arrested him and his two friends at gunpoint.
asserted
who → see → gunpoint
Mr McDowell said that the events that led Mr Fitzgerald to a Garda cell reminded him of controversial entrapment operations in the US, designed to arrest socially deprived minorities.
asserted
that → say → minorities
Mr McDowell said that the events that led Mr Fitzgerald to a Garda cell reminded him of controversial entrapment operations in the US, designed to arrest socially deprived minorities
He said: ‘It’s like you know those programmes they used to have on satellite TV, of leaving cars with the keys in them in America as bait cars to catch young black people in poor areas, and then send them off to jail forever.’
asserted
they → say → jail
Senator McDowell stressed that the decision to leave a key garda off a witness list, while others were placed on it and still anonymised, ‘all of that was wrong, it was very, very wrong.’
asserted
it → stress → that
‘They [the Garda] opposed bail.
asserted
They → oppose → bail
They wanted those three, the three of them, not just Evan, to go into custody pending trial, which, in present terms, means doing 18 months.
asserted
which → want → months
I mean, Jesus, they were innocents abroad,’ he said.
asserted
he → mean → ?
Asked about the new investigation, a spokesman for Fiosrú said: ‘Fiosrú does not confirm or deny the existence of complaints made by or against individuals.
asserted
Fiosrú → ask → individuals
This is to protect the investigative process, and the rights both of complainants, and those complained against.
asserted
This → protect → complainants
Fiosrú is not in a position to comment further.’
asserted
Fiosrú → comment → position
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
