Five years in jail for possessing pistol and drugs
Carlow Court House. Photo: Michael O'Rourke
A MAN with 176 previous convictions was sentenced to a total of five years in prison after pleading guilty to possessing a pistol and separately to four counts of drug possession at a sitting of Carlow Circuit Court.
John Brannigan (46) of 150 New Oak Estate, Carlow received a two years and three months sentence for a section 15 of the offence and a consecutive three years and six months sentence for possession of a firearm under section 27A of the . Judge Eugene O’Kelly suspended the final nine months of the second sentence, leaving a five-year prison term.
In evidence, Garda John Moulton said that on 12 March 2025, during the course of a garda operation, Mr Brannigan was seen on St Joseph’s Road in Carlow acting suspiciously. They stopped and searched him, finding 62 tablets of Diazepam and Zopiclone in his pocket and a small knife on a key ring. They also found €5,435 at the scene and on his person, for which he had no credible explanation.
A warrant for his home was executed that evening and gardaí located 106.6gm of cannabis in a shed and digital scales and ziplock bags consistent with drug selling.
In a bird box in his front garden, they found 2gm of cannabis resin, a non-controlled drug, 13 Zopiclone and 15 Triazolam tablets. The total value of the drugs in the box was between €700 and €800.
When he was interviewed that day, Mr Brannigan admitted ownership of the drugs in the shed, but denied they were for sale, saying he was a heavy user. He denied owning the drugs in the bird box.
Defence barrister John Madden BL put it to Garda Moulton that his client smoked around 20 joints a day and that there could be upwards of 10gm of cannabis in each joint. The garda accepted that Mr Brannigan was known as a heavy cannabis user.
Thirty of Mr Brannigan’s 176 previous convictions were for possession of drugs and 13 for sale or supply of drugs. He also had one conviction for possession of a knife.
Later that year, on the morning of 16 October 2025, Det Garda Milward was on patrol and observed Mr Brannigan handing over a €50 note in return for a plastic bag. When he noticed the gardaí, he threw the bag over the neighbouring property’s wall.
They retrieved the bag and found a pistol and two rounds of ammunition in it. WhatsApp messages from phones seized by gardaí indicated that Mr Brannigan had been looking to purchase a gun.
Mr Madden said his client was originally from Dublin, had a “torrid upbringing” and had started taking heroin at the age of ten. He moved to Carlow in 2006 and was on Methadone. The probation office assessed him as being a high risk of reoffending.
Aidan Doyle BL, who represented Mr Brannigan on the firearm charge, further noted that his client is married, had lost two brothers and his parents and that his background was so “exceptional and specific” that it warranted a deviation from the mandatory five years’ imprisonment outlined in the .
Judge O’Kelly accepted this and backdated the sentence to when the defendant had entered custody.
