Garda killer’s bid to overturn 40-year term fails

A man once sentenced to death for his role in the shooting dead of two gardaí following a botched robbery has had his bid for freedom dismissed by the High Court.

Colm O’Shea, currently held in Portlaoise Prison, was sentenced to death by the non-jury Special Criminal Court in 1980 after being found guilty, with two others, of the murder of Garda Henry Byrne. Det Garda John Morley was also shot dead in the raid.

The killing of the two gardaí near Loughglynn, Co Roscommon, in Jul 1980, shocked the nation.