City 8-year-old caught up in horror gangland shooting

A dream trip to the capital to see his uncle make his professional boxing debut was shattered for an eight-year-old Galway boy who had to flee for his life when a gang opened fire with semi-automatic weapons at a Dublin hotel last Friday.

An online video of the horrific attack captured Rocky Sweeney screaming for his dad in the chaos which followed the gunfire at the Regency Hotel.

The video showed his uncle Gary Sweeney – a former national amateur heavyweight champion, and the 2014 Galway Sports Star award winner for boxing – stripped down to his Superman underpants and just finishing his weigh-in when the three gunmen wearing imitation Garda ‘SWAT’ team gear started shooting.

“Daddy, help me. Daddy what was that. What was that?” pleaded the terrified youngster.

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His dad Michael – Gary’s brother – scooped his boy up and made for the exit doors.

“Obviously my son was my priority. I could have jumped a ten foot wall but I had Rocky with me. My thing was to get out of there. We came back in and saw a guy lying on the floor. It was the guy they said would lose a leg,” he recalled.

“I had a rosary beads on me and I took them off and put them in his hands. I covered Rocky’s eyes as we were leaving the room.”

Outside they passed by a man slumped against the reception. This was David Byrne (32) from Crumlin, who was killed in what Gardaí have labelled a drugs feud between rival gangs based between Dublin and Spain. A third man was also lying on the ground injured.

 For more on Rocky’s story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune