Two men charged with Limerick burglary

The two men aged 31 and 28 with addresses in Limerick City, have been charged by Gardai with three separate counts of burglary.

They are both due to be brought before a special sitting of Limerick District Court tomorrow at 12pm.

John O'Donoghue, aged 62, was found dead at his home in Doon, Co Limerick, yesterday afternoon.

He died from an apparent heart attack after interrupting burglaries.

It has emerged a member of the public helped Gardai and made a citizens arrest of one of two men shortly afterwards.

A local source who knows the local hero, wouldn not give his identity away.

"He's a dead sound bloke. You couldn't meet better."

A third member of the gang who was behind the wheel of a getaway car fled the scene and is still at large.

The third suspect had sounded the horn of the car to alert the other two other men when Mr O'Donoghue and his sister Chrsitina arrived at the house from a shopping trip.

A Garda attached to Cappamore, 6km away, happened to be on patrol near Mr O'Donoghue's house, and was about to respond to another call near Cappamore, when a member of the public flagged him down and informed him about a "suspicious" car outside the O'Donoghue house.

When the Garda arrived at the house he found Mr O'Donoghue's body where neighbours were performing CPR on him in an attempt to save his life.

A female Garda from Bruff, a distance of 30km away, also responded to the scene and also helped pursue two men who fled the house on foot.

The Cappamore based Garda and a local man hopped into the Bruff Garda car and sped off in the direction of Tipperary where they came upon two men running along the road.

"The locals did indeed give a dig out," a Garda source confirmed.

"The Cappamore Garda went up the road with a local man and they came across two suspects running along the road out, almost out of breath," the Garda source added.

Fianna Fáil spokesperson on justice Niall Collins praised the actions of the concerned citizen, but claimed the government has left the garda force "seriously under resourced".

"I think people are very civic minded and there is great credit due to a number of local people in Doon that they were able to get involved in the manner in which they did."

"But, also, it shows, for me -- and its a wake up call for the government -- when people in their private capacity, have to effectively resort to policing their own communities, in conjunction with a watered down police service; I think the alarm bells should be ringing in government (circles)."

Speaking outside her brother's house today, Christina O'Donoghue said "I don't want to talk".

Another woman at the house asked for privacy.