The Wright Venue: management shook by bomb alert

Dublin nightclub the Wright Venue almost cancelled its Apprentice after-show party last Sunday night following the fatal stabbing of a Polish man who attended the venue the night before.


Bartlomiej Urbaniak (29) died from stab wounds he sustained in an incident in Fairview, Dublin, in the early hours of Sunday morning.


The Polish man had earlier attended a birthday party at the Wright Venue in Swords with a group of Polish friends.


Gardaí believe he was attacked and stabbed either at a gathering at an apartment on Richmond Road or in a car not long after the group left the apartment.


Sources said some of Urbaniak's friends admitted to gardaí that many of the group were taking cocaine that night.


Gardaí said the victims' friends had not been forthcoming with information about the circumstances of the stabbing, but detectives do not believe it was a random attack.


Four knives were seized by investigating officers, but none have yet been forensically confirmed as the murder weapon.


Meanwhile, gardaí are also trying to find out who planted a homemade bomb that was left primed underneath a car near the Wright Venue early on Sunday morning.


Army bomb experts carried out a controlled explosion on the improvised device.


The bomb was found under a Range Rover in a car park next to the venue, in Airside retail park, at around 1.30am on Sunday.


Detectives are satisfied that the homemade bomb and the fatal stabbing were not linked.


However, the culmination of the two incidents led management at the Wright Venue to consider cancelling the Apprentice aftershow party on Sunday. However, it decided to go ahead with the party.


Gardaí have three main lines of inquiry about who planted the homemade bomb.


The person who was driving the Range Rover that night is a low-level criminal with links to Finglas criminals and Gerry Hutch, nicknamed 'The Monk', and had attended the funeral of Hutch's brother Derek last year.


The owner of the Range Rover is linked to Co Wicklow criminals.


Gardaí also want to establish if whoever planted the device was attempting to damage the Wright Venue.