Ireland is a diverse country and three men who formed part of a terrorist group that plotted to attack a Galway mosque using pipe bombs have brought “shame and embarrassment on all of us,” a judge has said.
Judge Caroline Biggs, presiding at the three-judge Special Criminal Court, sentenced Garret Pollock, the man deemed the most culpable of the three, to 10 and a half years with the final year suspended.
She sentenced his co-defendants, Karolis Peckauskas and Darren Gorman, to eight years each, also with the final year suspended.
Pollock (36 ), Gorman (34 ) and Peckauskas (39 ) apologised for the planned attack, which was foiled when gardaí carrying out random drug searches found explosive materials, weapons and evidence relating to a terrorist organisation calling itself the Irish Defence Army in a car in which Pollock and Peckauskas were travelling.
Pollock, of Kilhorne Greene, Annalong, Co Down, pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to engage in a terrorist activity or a terrorist-linked activity.
The details of the offence are that between November 4 and 5, 2025, the defendants attempted to engage in terrorist activity or terrorist-linked activity by attempting to set fire to the Maryam Mosque at Old Cottages, Monivea Road, Galway, an offence that was aggravated by hatred.
Gorman, of O’Moore Place, Portlaoise Co Laois and Peckauskas, with an address at Newfoundwell Road, Drogheda, Co Louth both pleaded guilty to the same offence.
Biggs said the attack was thwarted not by the conscience of those involved, but by the good work of gardaí.
She said the offending was motivated by hatred and carried a “sinister and terrorising message” that was to be spread worldwide in furtherance of the terrorist activities of the “self-styled Irish Defence Army”.
She said the plot involved careful planning, premeditation and the use of improvised explosive devices, which Pollock had tested to ensure they would work.
Huge and irrevocable damage
If detonated at the mosque, which is a busy place of “prayer and peace” surrounded by apartments and houses, the devices could have caused “huge and irrevocable damage,” she said.
Although the plan was not carried through, the judge said the court had to consider the “profound emotional distress” caused to the Islamic communities of Ireland and the “impact on the country as a whole”.
She said it was right that each of the accused had apologised to the nation because Ireland is a diverse, multicultural country.
“Their actions bring shame and embarrassment on all of us,” she said of the defendants.
She noted that Peckauskas came from Lithuania to Ireland and “took what was on offer” becoming part of the “rich fabric” of Irish society.
She said the defendants had taken a view that there is a “hierarchy of immigrants”, some who are welcome and some who are not. She said the three men believed they should decide who stays and who does not and described their views as “disturbing”.
The defendants said they were radicalised through social media, but the judge said the fact the same material is available to everyone suggested it did not take much to turn them.
Radicalised
Every child, she said, knows how algorithms on social media manipulate information, adding that these men acted not as “automatons”, but made their own decisions and “went down rabbit holes”, seeking radical material.
Pollock and Gorman, she said, had submitted that their involvement was born from their lack of self-esteem, sense of failure in their own lives and a desire to be part of a community or to achieve an “ego boost”.
However, Biggs said testimonies from their families and friends showed they had a community available to them. She said the community they chose was not one of patriotism or concerned parents but of “hooliganism and thuggery born out of a need for status”.
She said Pollock had a leadership role and has the greatest culpability. He had devised the organisation’s manifesto, created a manual for making explosives and shared information with other members. It was not possible to distinguish between Peckauskas and Gorman regarding their culpability, she said.
Mitigating factors included that none of the three had relevant previous convictions or a history of involvement in terrorist activities.
Peckauskas and Pollock have been in custody since their arrests and have used their time well. Gorman, she said, had made efforts to deal with his drug addiction issues.
She said all three had pleaded guilty, exhibited genuine remorse and have children who will “not have a father for the foreseeable future”.
