I’m lucky to be alive, says whistleblower

SHEENAGH McMAHON, the whistleblowing former wife of a disgraced detective facing the sack from the force, has revealed the full extent of the intimidation and bullying she suffered after first making a statement against him and a colleague.

The 43-year-old mother said she received unwanted visits from gardaí, was dismissed as a liar, came under pressure to retract, and claims she was wrongly imprisoned in a cell.

Just two months after making a statement to the Carty Inquiry investigating alleged Garda corruption in Donegal, Ms McMahon’s three young sons were taken into care.

Yet, despite years of turmoil, including a battle with alcoholism and abuse at the hands of her estranged husband, Det Garda Noel McMahon, she bears him no malice.

“I don’t hate Noel. I feel sorry for him. I loved him and did have happy times and a good marriage for a number of years,” she said in an interview with a Sunday newspaper.

But she added: “I know now that he is extremely violent and, when I think about it, I’m lucky to be alive.”

The Morris Tribunal report concluded she had been completely truthful in her testimony since first revealing the bizarre activities of McMahon, his boss, Supt Kevin Lennon, and the supposed IRA spy, Adrienne McGlinchey.

The two gardaí were found to have planted hoax explosives around Donegal and then lied about their involvement. They now face dismissal from the force.

Ms McMahon said her former husband loved his job and was a good officer, but that life began to fall apart after the death, from a respiratory illness, of their 14-month-old son in 1991.

“After Ross died it all started going wrong. He was vulnerable and fell to drinking. He was taken advantage of. He ended up doing something because he was vulnerable and easily fell into it.

“That’s my belief. He got himself into the mire and then he couldn’t get out so he got in deeper and deeper, hoping it would go away, drinking to forget and it all got worse and worse.” She believes he was manipulated by Supt Lennon and feels pity for Ms McGlinchey.

Ms McMahon had her own battles with drink but managed to beat the bottle after her three sons, the now 19-year-old Kevin, Stephen, 13, and Connor, 12, were taken off her in 1999. She has found out there were complaints of neglecting her children made in 1996, but is mystified why the social services did not act until three years later, two months after she made her statement.

Ms McMahon is also pursuing a claim for wrongful imprisonment against the Gardaí.

She believes a lot of the trouble was caused by drink.

“I said once, if there was no drink, there’d be no tribunal,” she said.