Farmers form posse to track down ‘shoot to kill’ gang

RUTHLESS raiders from the city were occupying the minds of Wicklow sheep farmers 40 years ago – and they were not taking the threat to their livelihoods lying down.

“Shoot to kill city gunmen” had been striking with lethal force in the early hours in the Garden County, skinning the dead sheep before making off with the carcase for their freezers.

But men from five branches of the Wicklow Sheep Owners’ Association banded together to form dusk-todawn two-man patrols, with help from local Gardai, and “heavy losses” of previous years were “drastically reduced”.

There was also a £1,000 reward put up by the Association for information leading to the arrest of the sheep killers.

Seán Malone, chairman of the Roundwood branch of the Association, said: “We are hoping not to set any pattern of watches but to be always on the aler t and ensure that there will be no oppor tunities offered to the raiders to get their sheep.”

The posses worked. By July 8, 1978, killings were down, although there was some evidence of sheep having been shot and skinned, and a number of empty bullet cases.

There was also concern that an insider was helping the killers. “There must be someone with local knowledge working with the raiders,” said Mr Malone.