Sallins Train Robbery: a miscarriage of justice with no closure

The Sallins Train Robbery in 1976 was one of the most audacious criminal acts ever in the State. The Dublin to Cork mail train, carrying £200,000, was robbed with the IRA (much later) claiming responsibility, but only after three innocent men had been jailed.

The men were tried, convicted and imprisoned as part of a convoluted saga involving the non-jury Special Criminal Court, claims of physical assault, forced confessions and a finding by the court that injuries sustained while in custody by some of the men were self-inflicted.

In recent days the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, the Pat Finucane Centre and Fair Trials have petitioned Minister for Justice Helen McEntee to establish a statutory inquiry into what they say is one of the most significant miscarriages of justice in modern Irish history.

Patsy McGarry, Irish Times contributor and author of While Justice Slept: Nicky Kelly and the True Story Behind the Sallins Train Robbery, tells In the News the story of the crime and the convictions, and says this call for an inquiry – for the State to investigate itself – is just another in nearly 50 years of such calls; none of which have resulted in action.