Was force necessary to take out Hennessy?

It was a single bullet from one standard-issue weapon that took out suspected killer Mark Hennessy last Sunday night as he sat in the driver seat of his wife’s Nissan Qashqai

The scene in Carrickmines where Mark Hennessy was shot by police last week

Michael Staines, the first Garda Commissioner, declared that the force would “succeed not by force of arms, but on its moral authority as servants of the people”.

All very well, but times change - and so do attitudes towards policing. An upsurge in the violent gangland Hutch/Kinahan feud saw an elite Armed Support Unit hit the streets of Dublin last year.

This heavily equipped unit is small, comprised of around 55 members. The ...