An Irish gangster is being held in custody over the kidnapping of a champion greyhound worth an estimated €1m. The dog, Clares Rocket, was stolen on Monday from kennels belonging to the Tipperary-based trainer Graham Holland. It was recovered by armed officers from a car on a road between Waterford and Limerick on Tuesday evening, police said.

Christie Keane was one of four men arrested by police on Tuesday night over the incident, which has been likened to the IRA’s kidnapping of the record-breaking racehorse Shergar in 1983. A police spokesman said the detained men were being questioned at stations in Clonmel and Tipperary. “The dog has been recovered safe and well,” he added.

Holland said on Wednesday that a ransom had been demanded but none had been paid for the greyhound, which is tipped as a favourite for the £150,000 English Derby in 2017.



Holland compared the kidnapping to the Shergar case, telling the Sean O’Rourke radio show on RTE: “People thought they could hold him for ransom. It is a bit like Shergar: if they haven’t got his identity book, they can’t do a lot with him. He is only worth money to the people who own them and what he can win for them. Obviously we were delighted to see him. I didn’t think the dog would be coming home.

“He has come back in good condition. He is not dehydrated and he hasn’t lost weight – they obviously fed him. He’s a little bit distressed but happy to be home, so hopefully he’ll be OK. On his day, he probably is the fastest dog in Ireland. There are always younger dogs and other dogs producing good runs, but he has been a fantastic dog for us.”



The Holland family later released a statement on their website. “The whole thing has been a nightmare for the team, and his [the dog’s] owners,” it said. “We were away in Belfast visiting our son Christopher and we assume the dog was taken in the early hours of Monday morning. Our other son Timmy found the dog missing and contacted us immediately.

“We picked Rocket up at about midnight and it was very emotional. He was very glad to be home and we were delighted to see him again. At one stage, naturally, we all feared the worst. Thank you to all our family, friends and followers who supported us during this time.”

Last year Keane was shot several times on his way to a gym in the University of Limerick Sports Arena, but survived. In 2000 he narrowly escaped another attempt on this life when one of his former associates tried to shoot him at point-blank range with a weapon that jammed. The attempted shooting sparked a bloody 10-year gangland feud that saw dozens of people killed, including Keane’s younger brother.

Shergar was seized by senior IRA figures who hoped to secure £2m in ransom money. The kidnappers wrongly believed the horse was the sole property of the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims, when in fact it was owned by a 34-strong consortium.

According to former IRA members, when the Irish government ordered a nationwide search for the Derby-winning horse, the Provisionals holding Shergar at a secret location near the border with Northern Ireland panicked and shot the animal dead rather than risk transporting it any further.

