Criminal who shot two gardai during Dublin seige was member of notorious Westies gang

Daniel Goulding (39) of Whitechapel Grove, Clonsilla, Co Dublin, appeared in court on Monday where he pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of two detective gardaí at his family home on May 25, 2021.

Two detectives received non-fatal limb injuries to the feet and one to the hand during the incident which lasted for up to two hours.

He appeared in the Central Criminal Court on Monday where he spoke only to answer "guilty" to both charges when read to him by the registrar.

Gardai recovered a machine pistol and a handgun in the house in Whitechapel Grove after the siege ended and also recovered a second machine pistol in the back garden of the house during follow up searches.

A court was a told at a previous hearing that Goulding had been receiving psychiatric treatment for a number of years.

The siege incident occurred shortly after west Dublin gang boss Jay O’Connor had been released from prison.

At the time sources said Goulding extremely paranoid as he feared he would be killed by associates of Jay O’Connor.

Goulding and his brother David were former members of the Westies crime gang along with O’Connor but fell out years ago.

The feud, which has claimed a number of lives, stretches back to the mid-2000s when there was a major falling out between former members of the Westies.

The Goulding brothers were on one side of the feud while O’Connor and brothers Andrew and Mark Glennon were on the other.

The feud had intensified in December 2004 when there was a gun attack on the home of Charlie ‘Buckethead’ Russell who was aligned to the Glennons.

Gardai arrested the Goulding brothers over the attack on the home and Russell firmly believed they were behind the attack.

After they were released from custody a man opened fire on them with a submachine gun as they left Blanchardstown Garda Station.

The attack was direct retaliation for the shooting of Buckethead’s home but no one was ever charged with either offence as neither side wanted to give evidence against each other.

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Russell hit the headlines again in 2008 after he sliced a man’s hand off with a samurai sword in a shocking attack in a north Dublin pub.

He was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2009 after pleading guilty to causing serious harm to his victim at The Deputy Mayor Pub, Meakstown, on January 13th, 2008.

Russell gave no reason for the attack but a co-accused claimed the victim had said something to his girlfriend’s mother which led to the attack.

Russell was seriously injured when he was mown down by a car as he was walking on the pavement in 2016 after his release from prison in another incident believed to be linked to the feud.

The same year Russell was being sentenced for the samurai attack the Goulding brothers were before the court in relation to the intimidation of a witness who had been shot by an associate of the Gouldings and was due to give evidence in an attempted murder trial.

The Circuit Criminal Court heard Daniel rang up the man and said: “You f***ing black bastard. I will blow your head off, fire an RPG [ rocket propelled grenade] into your house and cut up your son."

David then contacted him and urged him to withdraw the charges and was later sentenced to three years for interfering with the witness who had to go into the witness protection programme as a result of the intimidation but Daniel escaped conviction.

Daniel was however jailed for drug offences in 2009.

Meanwhile, the feud between former Westies members continued on over the years and David Goulding was injured after being shot in a car in Hartstown, north Dublin in 2012 in another attacked linked to the bitter dispute.

Associates of O’Connor were believed to have been behind the attack.

In June 2015, the feud claimed the life of an innocent man, Keith Walker, when a gunman shot him mistaking him for O’Connor.

Drug addict Christopher McDonald shouted “Jay O’Connor” before opening fire on Mr Walker at Blanchardstown Pigeon Racing Club car park on Shelerin Road, Clonsilla on 12 June 2015.

O’Connor, who vowed revenge for the attack, lunged at McDonald and threatened him during the trial.

McDonald, who is from the East Wall area of Dublin, was sentenced to life after being found guilty of the murder.

The feud quietened down after O’Connor was sentenced to three years in prison in 2019 in relation to a stab attack on a man in a west Dublin pub and threatening to kill two gardai.

However, his release from prison last year is believed to have put Goulding in a paranoid state of mind.

Goulding’s case was adjourned to November 21.

His barrister Michael Bowman said a psychiatric report on his client had only been received by the defence on Friday.

Mr Bowman also requested that a governor's report be prepared from Cloverhill Prison.

In September of last year, Detective Sergeant Michael Redmond told Blanchardstown District Court that at around 7.40pm on the night, gardaí were alerted to an incident where gunshots were fired in the area of Whitechapel Grove.

Two detectives arrived at the scene and “almost immediately came under fire” from an upstairs bedroom of Mr Goulding’s home.

They then took cover behind an unmarked patrol car which was struck a number of times.

The gardai were shot in their legs and one was shot in the hand.