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AGSI pays tribute to Macushla 'rebels

2011-11-11 10:28:01

Fifty years ago this week saw a traumatic period in the history of An Garda Síochána.

During this week eleven men were dismissed from the force.

The AGSI Tribute on Morning Ireland

Their only ‘crime’ was that they had attended a mass meeting of gardaí in the Macushla Ballroom off Amiens Street a few days earlier – Saturday 4th November, 1961 – that the Commissioner Dan Costigan had ruled to be illegal.

The men – women were as yet scarce in the force and none attended the Macushla – gathered to voice their strong objections to a pay ‘deal’ in which members with less than five year’s service received exactly nothing. Wages ranged from £8 to £11 per week depending on service.

They also protested about poor accommodation and an authoritarian management style in the force, with a heavy reliance on discipline.
The event became a national scandal when the men were dismissed and the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Charles McQuaid, stepped in. He negotiated with Minister for Justice Charles Haughey and acted as a mediator with the dismissed people, who he described as ‘decent men’.

The men were re-instated with no loss of service, a guarantee of no victimisation and a committee was set up to examine their grievances.
On Thursday, 10th November, 2011 the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors paid tribute to the Macushla people and their role in the development of the garda representative movement with special presentations of an inscribed bust of a garda. Among the recipients was Jack Marrinan who went on to serve 27 years as general secretary of the body for garda rank.
 

Jack Marrinan receiving his presentation	Noeleen Keating, widow of the late Dick Keating

“We were not just commemorating the Macushla meeting, we are paying tribute to the hundreds of gardaí who put their careers on the line and who risked discipline and even dismissal by attending a meeting that the Commissioner of the day had ruled to be illegal”, said the AGSI President, Aidan O’Donnell. “We were also paying a very special tribute to 11 members of the force that were actually dismissed as a direct consequence of their attendance at the Macushla.”

To read the full speech and pen pictures of the recipients click here/content/documents/Macushlaweb.pdf

	Others who received presentations included  Mrs Noeleen Keating, wife of the late Richard Keating, Mrs Mary Corcoran, wife of the late Liam Corcoran, Frank Mullen, Michael Murphy, Gerard Muldoon, Michael Reid, John Collins, Gerald Denn, Martin Breen and Mrs Maedhbh O’Colmáin on behalf of her late husband, Sean O’Colmáin.
Frank Mullen

Mrs Maedhbh O'Colmain		Mrs Mary Corcoran
Michael Murphy		John Collins
Gerry Muldoon		Gerry Denn
Martin Breen		Michael Reid
Paul Reynolds of RTE interviewing Frank Mullen, Mrs Keating and Jack Marrinan for Morning Ireland.

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