NEWS
PB February-March 2026
February-March 2026 9
By Frank Connolly
Scott free
Government unlikely to do anything about 2021
award of State’s highest Garda heroism medal
to Noel McMahon who has record of domestic
violence, corruption and planting hoax IRA bombs
D
omestic abuse by gardaí is in
the news wiht the shocking case
of former garda Margaret Loftus
whose complaints against her
husband, detective garda Derek
Bolger, ultimately given a suspended 3-year
sentence for a lesser charge of assault, were
not treated seriously by the force.
But ignoring domestic violence isn’t just
a problem in the Garda. last year Taoiseach
Micheál Martin agreed to reflect on the award
of a Scott medal to another detective garda
accused of serious domestic abuse but had
no comment when asked for his current view
for this article. Moreover, it now appears
eorts to revoke the medal are likely to meet
resistance from senior members of the Garda.
Martin made the pledge in the Dáil in October
2025, responding to a question from People
Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger. She asked
why former detective garda Noel McMahon
received the force’s highest award for
bravery in 2021, when he had resigned from
the Garda in 2004 after the Morris tribunal
concluded that he and a more senior ocer,
Superintendent Kevin Lennon, had planted
hoax bombs, ammunition and drugs across
the north-west in the 1990s and then falsely
claimed to have uncovered IRA bomb-making
material in order to boost their careers. She
wondered too why he had been awarded the
medal when the Morris tribunal also heard
evidence that McMahon violently abused
his wife, Sheenagh McMahon, including by
putting a gun to her head in their home. He
later obtained a barring order against her
under false pretences, a manoeuvre that
resulted in her losing custody of her children
for three years.
Despite this record, McMahon was among
a group of gardaí awarded the Scott Medal
in October 2021 for bravery during the
1983 rescue of businessman Don Tidey in
County Leitrim. The medal was presented by
then Garda Commissioner Drew Harris at a
ceremony attended by the acting Minister for
Justice, and recent Presidential candidate,
Heather Humphreys.
That same month, following the murder of
Sarah Everard in London by a Metropolitan
Police ocer, the Garda announced new
measures to address domestic abuse and
coercive control by serving members, Assistant
Commissioner Pat Clavin said the force would
examine “all sexual, gender-based domestic
violence and coercive control related crimes
involving members of An Garda Síochána”
over the previous five years.
However, in a letter sent in August 2023
to Fianna Fáil Senator Paul Daly, Harris’s
oce stated: “As you know, the Scott Medal
Award is the highest award for bravery that
An Garda Síochána can bestow upon a
member. However, the matters raised in your
correspondence cannot be taken into account
in the award of the medal, nor will general
misconduct if a member’s courage and
heroism are such as clearly entitle him/her to
the award”. These comments were essentially
reiterated to Village for this article.
The Commissioner also declined a request
by Senator Daly to extend the time period of
the review into domestic violence to cover
retired members and for abuse committed
more than five years before it was established
in October 2021.
Senator Daly wrote to the Commissioner
after his party colleague, Fingal Councillor
Cathal Haughey, was contacted by Sheenagh
McMahon who was, along with many others
aected by garda corruption and abuse in
Donegal, and was incensed by the award of
the medal to her estranged husband.
“Noel McMahon should not have been
awarded the Scott Medal following the evidence
outlined in the Morris Tribunal. It should be
taken o him”, Haughey told Village.
In her Dáil intervention last October,
Coppinger set out the tribunal’s findings in
stark terms, describing how McMahon planted
the hoax bombs and ammunition “to make
himself look good for catching the IRA”.
She also referred to the case of publican
Frank Shortt, who was falsely implicated after
McMahon bought illicit drugs and planted
them in a Donegal nightclub before organising
a Garda raid. Shortt’s conviction was quashed
by the Court of Criminal Appeal, which granted
a certificate of miscarriage of justice in 2002.
He was later awarded €4.6 million in damages
by the State.
Sheenagh McMahon received an apology
on behalf of the Minister for Justice, the Garda
and the State in 2018, along with €20,000 in
damages. She refused an additional €5,000
which had been oered on condition that the
apology would not be read out in court.In the
apology, lawyers for the State, the Garda, the
Minister for Justice and Noel McMahon said in
open court that:
“The Defendants concede liability on the
basis that they accept that the Plainti was
wrongfully arrested and detained on 30th
June, 1999 by reason of the arresting Garda
executing a Safety Order produced by the
Plainti’s husband which in fact had never
been issued by the District Court”.
“How does a garda — a bent copper by
anyone’s standards — end up getting a Scott
Medal for bravery only three years after such a
State apology?”, Coppinger asked.
She raised the matter in the Dáil after
details of the 2021 award ceremony, including
Humphreys’ attendance, were published by
Village and The Ditch in the days before the
presidential election in October 2025.
The Taoiseach said he learned of the matter
from the report and suggested the timing was
intended to damage Humphreys, his preferred
candidate. “It was written in such a way as to
target an oce holder at the time”, he said,
while conceding that “there are nonetheless
legitimate questions”.
“I would have issues with that myself. It is a
fair point to raise”, the Taoiseach said, adding
that he did not have the power to revoke
the award. “There has to be zero tolerance
of domestioc violence and gender-based
violence more generally”.
Hoax-bombing domestic-abuser, McMahon, is second from
right, standing; Humphreys and Harris also pictured
Village_FebMarch26.indb 9Village_FebMarch26.indb 9 03/02/2026 08:2403/02/2026 08:24
