THE SUPPLIER of controversial Garda gun holsters withdrawn from service due to safety concerns linked to the death of Detective Garda Colm Horkan was subsequently given a separate €28,000 contract to provide elements of Garda uniforms, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The payments – amounting to almost €28,179.30 over three months between January and March 2022 and which came after the holsters had been the subject of an internal Garda recall order – were last night described as an insult to the memory of Detective Garda Colm Horkan who was murdered in June 2020.
‘It is quite insulting to his family that a company who would have created these… holsters for use by An Garda Síochána were still being paid by the public,’ said PAC member and Labour Party TD, Eoghan Kenny, who had questioned former Garda Commissioner Drew Harris on the issue of holsters before he left the role in September.
Contacted by the MoS this week, the supplier rejected any connection with their holsters and the death of Detective Garda Colm Horkan, and a separate incident the week before which saw life-changing injuries to an officer outside the Israeli Embassy.
They also rejected any suggestions that they had received any preferential treatment from the garda in charge of the procurement of the holsters, Superintendent Liam White who this week, a court heard, was a neighbour of the supplier.
A court case taken by Detective Chief Superintendent Brian O’Reilly this week mentioned the supplier and Superintendent White, who was responsible for procuring the holsters between 2013 and 2020 when the contract was abandoned.
Det Chief Supt O’Reilly, who has been on sick leave, has taken a case against the former Garda Commissioner Drew Harris claiming that he has been penalised for making protected disclosures about the ‘unsafe’ holsters and other matters.
The MoS began publishing a series of articles in 2023 based on disclosures, along with documentation and photographs that had been submitted to Garda chiefs, former justice minister Helen McEntee and Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
We published protected disclosures that revealed how an officer – not Det Chief Supt O’Reilly – had initially given detailed warnings about holsters supplied to gardaí for Sig Sauer and Walther service weapons.
The former officer first warned of the dangers back in 2019, the year before Detective Garda Colm Horkan was murdered in June 2020.
This week, Det Chief Supt O’Reilly’s case was back in court after several previous hearings.
The case, before Judge John O’Connor in the Circuit Civil Court, relates to claims that the Detective Chief Superintendent has been punished by Garda management for raising his concerns.
In his written evidence to the court, Det Chief Supt O’Reilly said that holsters should be supplied by an established firearms accessories manufacturer.
This is the case now and was the case before the introduction of this specific supplier contract.
For example, the holster currently in use by gardaí is a King Cobra Evo5 model manufactured and supplied by international gun specialists for police forces around the world.
This and comparable holders are made from hard polymer designed to prevent accidental discharges and to prevent third-party access to the weapon within.
Judge O’Connor had read in detail Det Chief Supt O’Reilly’s affidavit in which it was stated an official issue 9mm Luger calibre Walther semi-automatic pistol was accidentally discharged outside the Israeli ambassador’s residence, causing life-changing personal injury to the security garda who had been wearing one of the leather holsters in question.
The court heard that the Chief Superintendent had made several protected disclosures in recent years with one of them alleging that Garda personnel were endangered due to ‘unsafe and defective leather pistol holders’.
Det Chief Supt O’Reilly said in written evidence that [the supplier] had been engaged to provide leather pistol holsters as well as other accessories for carrying ammunition, including ammunition pouches.
He had considered it very unusual that they should have been procured from [this supplier] rather than a specialist firearms supplier.
He alleged that a forensic examination of the holster by a ballistics expert had reported ‘a serious safety concern which may result in serious injury’.
The ‘stark’ report had stated that when inserting the pistol into the new leather holster an accidental discharge was made possible by the creased leather lodging between the trigger and trigger-guard of the weapon.
In his court appearances, Det Chief Supt O’Reilly also told the court of separate concerns about the procurement of the ‘defective’ holsters.
‘It is my understanding that the individual who owns and operates the [supplying company], is a neighbour of Supt Liam White? who formerly had responsibility for Firearms Stores and Procurement until that function was transferred to me,’ Det Chief Supt O’Reilly stated.
The Mail on Sunday has confirmed that Supt White – who has held procurement roles at the helicopter, dog, mounted, diving and armoury units – lives within a few minutes’ walk of the supplier.
Det Chief Supt O’Reilly’s written evidence went on to say that he and another officer were informed that the man detained in relation to the shooting of Det Colm Horkan (Stephen Silver) had advised gardaí, while in custody, that he had been able to reach down and pull the gun from Det Horkan’s holster.
Det Chief Supt O’Reilly said he subsequently issued a safety advisory about the unsafe holsters.
Contacted this week at their home and subsequently by email, the supplier said: ‘At no stage has our holster been found defective.
‘Our holster, as you are well aware, has no connection with any injury suffered by a member of An Garda Síochána whilst on duty at the Israeli Embassy.
‘Likewise, our holster did not contribute in any way to the death of the late Detective Garda Colm Horkan,’ they said.
The 2013-2020 holster has repeatedly been dubbed ‘defective’ in the Oireachtas.
However, at a Public Accounts Committee hearing held this summer, then Garda Commissioner Drew Harris refused to agree to this description.
‘I am not going to apply the expression “defective holsters” to them, Commissioner Harris said when questioned by Mr Kenny.
‘This matter is the subject of a number of ongoing investigations by various bodies and they are matters before the courts as well. I cannot apply, and will not apply, the expression ‘defective holsters’ to them,’ the Commissioner added.
Commissioner Harris said he had not sought to recoup the money spent by taxpayers on the holsters when questioned by Mr Kenny.
‘I questioned Drew Harris on this in June of 2025 and he never made reference to the fact that [the suppliers] were still being paid for the first three months of 2022.
‘Drew Harris would have been well aware of that, and if he wasn’t? people who were below him were not letting him know,’ the Cork TD told the MoS.
‘It’s quite disturbing, considering that this was such an important question raised at the Public Accounts Committee in June, that the Commissioner didn’t feel it appropriate at that stage to tell me or any other members of committee – and the wider public – that [the supplier] continued to be paid after the controversy of the holsters came out.’
The same week that Det Horkan was murdered, a member of the Special Detective Unit (SDU) received life-altering injuries when his weapon accidentally discharged as he was on duty outside the home of the Israeli ambassador.
The SDU officer is now suing the force in a claim that relates to the suitability of the holster he had been issued.
