Unassuming heroes get deserved spotlight at glittering Garda event
Jean Lahiffe, wife of the late Detective Garda Morgan Lahiffe and his daughter Avril, hold his picture and a Bronze Scott Medal awarded posthumously. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire
The Scott awards are a rare example of pomp and circumstance on the part of An Garda Síochána.
While the recipients of the award are more than deserving of the somewhat ostentatious ceremony — replete with lead-in and play-out musical fanfares reminiscent of a Hollywood extravaganza — as it is held to commemorate their heroic actions, one senses that those brave souls are not quite so comfortable with the perhaps overwhelming nature of the limelight.
The actions for which they received the coveted award are as brave as you could imagine, however, and representative of the full spectrum of Garda responsibilities — from apprehending dangerous criminals to performing acts of derring-do in the face of the forces of nature, to giving up their lives for the job.
Eight medals were delivered on Monday — three of them posthumously — at Walter Scott House, the Garda’s newest command centre on Military Rd in south Dublin. It is named after the eponymous colonel, who in 1924 donated a $1,000 bond to An Garda Síochána for the provision of a bravery medal for members.
That award is now the highest commendation the force’s commissioner can deliver to one of his officers.
Of the 2024 recipients, two were from Cork — Garda Tim McSweeney and Garda Morgan Lahiffe.
The former — who told the media that he had no idea how big an event the awards were before travelling to Dublin for the ceremony — received a silver Scott medal for his courage in saving the lives of a woman and her children from the violence of her former partner in Douglas in March 2022.
It was an intervention in which Garda McSweeney suffer grievous knife wounds which affect his life to this day.
Garda Lahiffe, meanwhile, who passed away before he could receive his 2024 medal, became the first member to receive two Scott awards — a bronze medal to add to the gold he received in 1978 for the bravery he displayed during an armed raid on the old CMP Dairies on Kinsale Rd in Cork.
His widow Jean was in attendance at the ceremony, together with his daughter Avril and some of his grandchildren.
“You’re a celebrity now, Nana,” one grandson said as Jean posed for photographs with the prestigious medal, the pride clear to read on her face.
“He was a very conscientious person, and he enjoyed serving the community,” Avril Lahiffe said after the ceremony.
It was she who nominated her father for his second award over two years ago, for his actions in engaging three armed raiders at the Five Star supermarket in Togher in August 1971.
Despite having a gun pointed at them, Garda Lahiffe and his colleague Garda Gerry O’Sullivan initially refused to leave the shop before being forced to retreat. The pair were again threatened at gunpoint as the gunmen fled the shop, before pursuing the criminals by car.
His partner having exited the car to call for help, Garda Lahiffe continued the pursuit. Eventually, the armed raiders were apprehended.
Meanwhile, Garda Lahiffe’s service to justice continued long after his retirement.
Avril said: “He was required to give evidence at the oldest murder trial in the history of the State, the murder of Nora Sheehan, and he said: ‘I’m delighted to be in my 80s that I can still serve with service to the State.
“He was up giving evidence at that trial the summer before last, and a conviction was got. So he was very proud, he’s had many proud moments.”
Garda Lahiffe had also served during the investigation into the Air India crash in 1985 — the incident which saw 329 people die off the Cork coast after their airplane was blown up by terrorists.
“We’re very proud to have it,” Jean said of her husband’s latest award, which was delivered in recognition of “exceptional courage and bravery involving personal risk to life in the execution of his duty”.
“It’s a huge honour, we’re very moved by it. It’s fantastic for Mam,” Avril said.
Many recipients of the Scott award have since passed away, given the medal is used to honour acts of bravery regardless of when they were carried out, be it 12 months or 80 years ago.
“It’s a very stringent process,” a source said of the method by which recipients are decided upon.
They noted that “many gardaí are students of history, which can lead to events being reappraised in terms of, well, this is someone who should have been recognised for what they did”.
At the ceremony, which was also attended by Justice Minister Helen McEntee, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris acknowledged that the conditions for being awarded the Scott medal are “very high”.
The two gold medals awarded in 2024 underline that fact. Both were awarded to posthumous recipients — for incidents which occurred 82 and 93 years ago.
The latter was given to Superintendent John Curtin, who lost his life at the hands of paramilitaries in March 1931, shot dead outside his house in Co Tipperary after a volatile period in the locality, a time during which he “carried out his duty diligently at a time of great uncertainty”.
Garda Curtin died leaving behind his heavily pregnant wife, who subsequently lost the twins she had been carrying.
His medal was awarded for “exceptional courage and bravery, which led to the loss of his life”.
Detective Sergeant Denis ‘Dinny’ O’Brien, meanwhile,was shot dead at his home in Rathfarnham, south Dublin, by IRA gunmen in September 1942.
Receiving the gold medal on behalf of her grandfather for his courage in the line of duty, Órla McKeown said it was “an emotional day for us all”.
Carrying a photograph of Det Sgt O’Brien and his future wife taken in 1926, Ms McKeown said it was particularly a “very special day” for her elderly mother.
“The family is so proud of him. He was a son, he was a brother, he was a father and a husband. Today, 82 years later, he is a grandfather, a great grandfather, and a great great grandfather.
“One young great great grandson heard his name on the radio this morning and said to his mammy: ‘That’s him!’ It’s lovely to see... the pride and the consciousness in a seven-, eight-year-old boy of the honour that has been done.”
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