A hero garda who wrestled a sword from a man in a packed courthouse in Limerick has retired.
After 31 years of service to the city and the country Tony Grey, from Kanturk, County Cork, has decided to step away from the force.
The incident occurred in 2009, Grey tackled the youth, disarmed him and prevented him from seriously injuring anyone.
Reflecting on the incident, Grey said via Limerick Live: “I saw him come into the court with the sword and I just jumped on him. I still have a vision of a senior counsel running with the fear of it all. It was chaos.”
A large-scale altercation broke out in the foyer of the court building at Merchant’s Quay in the city. The incident was the latest in an ongoing dispute between two Traveller families.
Grey joined An Garda Siochana in 1995 to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. Speaking to the news outlet, Grey said it is the "right time" to retire.
“I got great advice from a man one time. He told me the two best decisions in his life were joining the guards and retiring from the guards. What I will take from my time in the guards is the gratitude that people gave me, for example, after a bad accident. People are kind and if you’re kind to people, people will be kind back and I got plenty of that," he concluded via Limerick Live.
