A 27-year-old night porter was tied up with cable ties and marched into a back office at the Finnstown House Hotel in Lucan at around 4am yesterday before being forced to hand over around €6,000 in cash to the two raiders.

Two masked raiders entered the popular hotel and threatened the eastern European staff member before escaping in a silver Audi A5 car.

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One of the criminals, who are both being described as being Irish, was armed with a handgun during the raid, which gardai were notified of at 4.10am yesterday.

The armed robbery is the second to happen at Finnstown House Hotel in the last 18 months.

Previously €10,000 was stolen at around 3am on August 25, 2014, when the raiders broke into the property and threatened to kill three staff members before tying them up.

On that occasion, one of the criminals was armed with a handgun. After targeting the staff members, the raiders got access to a safe with cash in it.

The duo then escaped from the scene in a stolen green Suzuki Swift, which was found burnt out in the Hillcrest Way estate in Lucan.

Sources said that gardai have not established any link between the two armed robberies.

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The west-Dublin hotel was among 30 properties in Dublin, Kildare, Louth and Cork, that were searched by armed gardai in a series of raids in January.

There were no arrests made during any of the searches. It is understood a number of antiques and paintings were taken from the hotel.

Separately, in May of last year a large bomb was discovered at the hotel, which forced the evacuation of a wedding. That incident was not linked to January's raids.

Detectives from Clondalkin Garda Station warned Mr Mansfield (49) last October that there was a threat against his life.

Sources said that associates of a notorious Traveller criminal had been approached about a possible attack. These associates were linked to slain criminal 'Fat Andy' Connors.

However, in a subsequent interview with the Herald, Mr Mansfield said he believed no criminals are after him.

"I wouldn't see any reason why anyone would want to harm me," he said at the time.

Insisting that he has "bigger worries", a defiant Mr Mansfield claimed a threat to his life was "news to me" and denied that gardai told him of a threat.

Last August, the Herald photographed Mr Mansfield at the aftermath of a hotel meeting with well-known Ballymun gangland criminal Thomas 'Nicky' McConnell.

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