The lone voice of the whistleblower

THE whistleblower’s lot can be lonely. Remember Sheena McMahon? She was a young mother, who, in the mid-1990s, told of madness in sections of the gardaí in Donegal.

Sheena’s husband, Noel, a detective sergeant, and a few others, including a superintendent, were running a little fiefdom, targeting citizens, inventing enemies of the state, making a mockery of the badge they served.

When Sheena’s allegations seeped out, the word was that she had ‘personal issues’ and was inventing this stuff to get at her estranged husband.