A DUBLIN BUSINESSMAN and former election candidate has told a judge “I have never been violent” as he initiated a legal bid aimed at compelling gardaí to restore his firearms certificate.

Brian Garrigan, 58, of Fairview Corner, Dublin 3, who unsuccessfully ran as an independent in the 2020 general and 2024 council elections, brought his action to Dublin District Court today.

Judge Peter White said he had received a statutory declaration from Garrigan, the owner of an IT recovery and computer repair business; however, the respondent was listed as Garda Superintendent Stephen McCauley of the Carriage Office in Dublin Castle.

Superintendent McCauley asserted that he had no information about the case. However, Judge White pointed out that the case concerned a firearms certificate.

Garrigan confirmed he was proceeding with the appeal and that he was not a violent person, but was a businessman with several employees.

It was clarified that the respondent ought to have been the Superintendent of his local district instead. Once that issue was clarified, the case was adjourned until June for the correct officer to be served.

In a 2024 prosecution, he was accused of engaging in threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour under the Public Order Act, a weapons offence for the production of a slash-hook during a dispute, and criminal damage to freshly laid tarmac.

The incident occurred at Annesley Bridge Road, Fairview, Dublin, on 22 October 2023, when Garrigan’s water was cut off by road workers who refused to reconnect it over the weekend.

He maintained that despite repeated requests, workers cursed at his wife and covered a stopcock which was switched off and covered with tarmac.

While Garrigan had pleaded not guilty, Judge John Hughes at Dublin District Court ruled that the businessman had broken the law but gave him a chance to avoid having a recorded conviction.

Judge Hughes stated that, after the issues with his water supply, the accused was “at the end of his tether and lost the plot” and acted in a way he should not have.

After the former Dublin North Central candidate donated €500 to the Make a Wish children’s charity, Judge Hughes applied the Probation of Offenders Act and granted gardaí a destruction order for the slash-hook.

Garrigan’s website and social media say he has donated more than 550 free computers to various causes to help Syrian and Ukrainian families, Temple Street Hospital, as well as suicide, homeless, and addiction charities.

He had announced that he ran in the local elections for Dublin Central “to put Irish lives first”, with a photo of him holding an “Irish Lives Matter” poster.

During his 2020 run for the Dáil, he secured 588 votes, including transfers, and was eliminated in the fourth round of counting.

He had canvassed on various issues, including immigration, health, the climate emergency, housing and gender equality.