83-year-old Irish man faces off 3 robbers armed with hammers and a gun in video: 'Ye're cowards'

Hope Schreiber
·Writer
An 83-year-old great-grandfather foiled an armed robbery in Cork, Ireland. (Photo: irishexaminer via Twitter)
An 83-year-old great-grandfather foiled an armed robbery in Cork, Ireland. (Photo: irishexaminer via Twitter)

There’s an Irish expression that goes, “Don’t be breaking your shin on a stool that’s not in your way,” but 83-year-old Denis O’Connor of County Cork, Ireland, may have made an exception to that rule when he stepped in to help a bookmaker at Bar One Racing when armed robbers arrived.

Three men, armed with two hammers and what appears to be a sawed-off shotgun, were captured on CCTV footage attempting to hold up the shop manager, Tim Murphy, while O’Connor, a great-grandfather and retired mechanic-fitter, came to Murphy’s aid.

The video of the incident has since gone viral, and after witnessing the pensioner’s brawling skills alongside Murphy, it’s no surprise as to why.

Murphy told The Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s RedFM 104-106, “They wanted the safe money. They weren’t interested in the 5-euro or 10-euro bills in the till. They were shouting, ‘We want the safe, we want the safe.’

“I was just being threatened by the two fellas with the hammers, but then Denis tackled one, and I just said I kind of have to tackle this fella now as well.” Murphy recalls O’Connor shouting at the three masked robbers, “Ye’re cowards, ye’re total cowards.”

“Tim the manager is a very nice young man, and I just couldn’t not help him…” O’Connor told the Irish Sun. “Sometimes you can just sit down and do nothing or you can stand up to people like these and that’s what I did.”

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