Ex-garda’s ‘trauma’ over Tidey shootout

A retired Garda sergeant has told a judge that the fatal shootout at Derrada Wood during the rescue of businessman Don Tidey more than 30 years ago, left him with lifelong post-traumatic stress disorder.

During a Garda compensation case, Thomas Mansfield told the High Court that he had been deployed, with other unarmed Garda recruits, in the rescue from IRA kidnappers of Mr Tidey at Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, in 1983.

He told Mr Justice Bernard Barton that another recruit, Garda Gary Sheehan, and a member of the Defence Forces, Private Patrick Kelly, had been shot dead during the IRA gun attack. Despite his lifelong injury, Mr Mansfield, formerly of Rathcoole, Co Dublin went on to win An Garda Síochána’s highest award for bravery, the Scott Medal, after rescuing an amputee from a fire in Rathgar, Dublin.