Man who threw roof tiles at gardaí during standoff jailed

A former lighting technician for film and TV who spent four hours on a roof during a standoff with the Armed Support Unit has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Martin Cunningham, 32, of Sheephill Green, Blanchardstown, in Dublin, spent the time removing tiles and solar panels from the roofs of his mother and her neighbours' houses and throwing the tiles in the direction of the gardaí.

Cunningham was before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today, where he pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal damage at Castle Grange Avenue in Dublin 15 on 16 September 2025.

He was also sentenced yesterday after pleading guilty to threatening to kill a Lidl security guard and producing a Stanley knife at Lidl, Clonsilla on 23 February 2024.

Garda Eva Mahedy told the court that she arrived at Castle Grange Avenue in the early hours of 16 September 2025 with the Garda Negotiation Unit and Armed Support Unit (ASU).

There were already several gardaí at the scene and she estimated that about 20 officers in total had attended that morning.

Garda Mahedy said she could see Cunningham standing on the roof of one of the houses, with a number of gardaí attempting to engage with him to come down.

"He began removing tiles from the roofs of a number of houses," she testified. "He was throwing them in the direction of gardaí."

She said he was throwing tiles throughout his four hours on the roof from about 4am to 8am, and damaged a parked car with one. He also removed two solar panels from one of the houses.

The garda said that Cunningham, who was under the influence of intoxicants, also shouted at gardaí that he would shoot them if he had a gun, and that he would stab them.

Eventually he jumped down and attempted to run away, but was arrested.

When asked why he had done it, he replied: "I couldn’t tell you. I was on drugs and seeing shadow men who weren’t there."

He said he had taken "coke, vodka and a few bumps of ketamine" and he explained that he had recently hidden in a river hiding from gardaí, who were not there.

Garda Mahedy said that more than €10,000 in damage had been done to the houses, which were owned by Tuath Housing Association.

She said that Cunningham’s previous convictions included harassment, for which he had been jailed for three years, and drug dealing.

Garda Mahedy agreed with Oisin Clarke BL, defending, that the accused was going through a sort of psychosis at the time.

He had been up for two days abusing substances, Mr Clarke explained, and thought members of the ASU were sneaking onto the roof. However, no gardaí ever went onto the roof.

She agreed that it was an enormous waste of garda resources.

Separately, Garda Ian Maddocks testified that he had attended Lidl Clonsilla on the night of the offences there. The security officer told him that Cunningham and a female had begun throwing oranges around the store before taking alcohol to the till.

They were refused service due to having no ID, and Cunningham picked up a lemon and threw it at the till area.

He was asked to leave and was escorted towards the exit by the security guard, but picked up a fire extinguisher and said: "I’ll bounce this off your f**ng head."

He then took out a Stanley knife and said: "I will cut you to bits and kill you."

Garda Maddocks said that the security guard retreated, terrified and in fear of his life, and Cunningham was identified from footage.

The court heard that the security guard went home and told his partner what had happened.

"She could see fear in my eyes. She asked me to resign," he said in his victim impact statement. "I said I couldn’t as it would ruin us financially."

Mr Clarke said that his client had worked with his father, who was a lighting technician for TV and film, but had started using drugs.

He had spent five years of his 20s in prison, but was now doing extremely well in prison in Portlaoise, where he had completed an alternative to violence programme and was attending a psychologist. He was also now taking antidepressants, he said.

Judge Martin Nolan said that the threats against the security guard were very believable and traumatically affected him.

He took into account Cunningham’s guilty plea and jailed him for a total of two and a half years.