Patsy McGarry
speaker
174 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 25 Jul
Patsy McGarry’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
It began with the train robbery 50 years ago on the 31st of March, 1976, when about a quarter of a million pounds, which is a lot of money in those times, was taken off a train.
The driver was slightly injured and the gang got away.
And the Gardaí rounded up, to use the phrase, the title of the book, The Usual Suspects.
Protesters, basically, who are fairly hard Republicans, including Oscar Branagh, Nicky Kelly, Brian McNally in particular.
And they were badly bruised or emerged badly bruised after encounters with Gardaí over the following approximately 48-hour period, brought before the district court and were charged in connection with the robbery, all three of them.
And it went to trial in 1978 and the first trial
It was a phenomenon in its own right.
It became the longest trial in history before it collapsed.
And it collapsed because one of the judges was deemed to be sleeping.
All sorts of ridiculous things were undertaken by counsel for the defense.
Paddy McEntee, the leading counsel for the defendants, basically started dropping books from a height to make a noise.
The judge had concerned just John O'Connor to waken him up.
Called for toilet breaks.
And it wasn't working.
Neil Kiley wrote an article in Hibernia magazine.
And it was a risky thing to do because they could have been up for contempt of court.
Claiming that the judge was asleep.
Asserting that the judge was sleeping.
And nothing happened.
So anyhow, it went too far as far as counsel was concerned and McAtee formally put it to the three judges that one of them had been falling asleep.
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