Two Sligo Gardaí bundled into car boot by armed men 40 years ago to receive Scott medals for bravery
Two Sligo Gardaí will receive Scott Medals for bravery on Friday.
Two Sligo Gardaí are to be honoured for their bravery when confronting an armed gang of men forty years ago.
Sergeant PJ Gallagher and Garda Thomas McGuinness will each receive receive a Bronze Scott Medal at a ceremony in Dublin on Friday morning hosted by the Garda Coimmissioner Drew Harris.
The two Sligo Gardaí were on proactive anti-crime patrol when they came across a number of vehicles parked up in a layby at Aughamore Far, Carraroe late at night. The two Gardaí were overpowered by a number of armed men and ordered at gunpoint to lie face down on the ground.
The two Gardaí were bundled first into a van and then the boot of a car when they were driven towards Bawnboy, Co Cavan. There, they were ordered into a second hijacked car and driven to Kilnaleck, Co Cavan where the car was abandoned.
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The members successfully released themselves from the boot of the car and raised the alarm.
The Scott Medal is the highest award that can be bestowed by the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána and is awarded for ‘most exceptional bravery and heroism involving the risk of life in the execution of duty’.
In 1924 Colonel Walter Scott donated to An Garda Síochána a $1,000 gold bond, in perpetuity, to endow a bravery medal, the Walter Scott Medal, and included the dies from which all Scott medals would be struck.
11 Scott medals will be awarded on Friday including • 1 Gold Medal (Posthumously) • 7 Silver Medals • 3 Bronze Medals (1 Posthumously)
