{"id":446600,"date":"2026-04-21T15:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/446600\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:03:11","slug":"gardas-suspension-over-lending-bike-leaves-shameful-stain-on-force-gra-conference-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/446600\/","title":{"rendered":"Garda\u2019s suspension over lending bike leaves \u2018shameful stain\u2019 on force, GRA conference hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The case of a garda who was suspended and placed under criminal investigation for lending a man an unclaimed bicycle during the Covid-19 pandemic has left a \u201cshameful stain\u201d on the force, the Garda Representative Association<\/a> (GRA) has said. <\/p>\n

Det Gda Eamon Cunnane was joined on stage at the GRA\u2019s annual conference in Westport, Co Mayo<\/a>, by garda\u00ed from Limerick and Clare who were suspended as part of an inquiry into the handling of penalty points.<\/p>\n

The conference heard Cunnane \u201cendured severe trauma and distress\u201d as a result of being \u201cwrongly suspended for years on end\u201d.<\/p>\n

The conference heard Cunnane was \u201cleft isolated by many of his superiors\u201d, and that the investigation took a toll on his health, his reputation and his \u201cstanding in the community\u201d, with his wife and children also impacted.<\/p>\n

Cunnane received a standing ovation alongside seven garda\u00ed who were suspended for allegedly \u201csquaring\u201d penalty points \u2013 Tom McGlynchy, Niall Deegan, Peter O\u2019Donnell, Paul Baynham, Alan Griffin, John Shanahan and Co Clare garda Colm Geary.<\/p>\n

Of the seven suspended garda\u00ed, two were charged but found not guilty, three were charged but never prosecuted and the remaining two were suspended but never charged. The investigations into the garda\u00ed was described as a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d by GRA representative for the Limerick division, Frank Thornton.<\/p>\n

Cunnane, who is based in the Midlands, was suspended for more than three years after he gave a bicycle from a Garda station to an older man in his community who required it following a knee injury.<\/p>\n

The conference heard what happened next \u201cwas a shameful stain on the organisation we all work for,\u201d GRA representative for Westmeath Michael Ryan said. <\/p>\n

Six members of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI) unit arrived at Cunnane\u2019s door at 7am on June 4th, 2020.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Garda chiefs \u2018overzealous\u2019 and too quick to suspend officers, GRA saysOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Cunnane was not notified that he was under investigation prior to the execution of the search warrant on his home, the GRA representative said.<\/p>\n

Ryan said it was a case of a rural garda engaging in community policing and lending an unclaimed bicycle to a vulnerable member of the local community during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

For that act, he was \u201csuspended and left languishing for over three years, not knowing what would happen next. He was given no proper information or direction\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was simply told he was under investigation, presumably guilty, until he would prove his innoFcence,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n

Despite the Director of Public Prosecutions directing that no prosecution or charges should be brought 10 months after that, Ryan said suspension continued \u201cfor a further three years\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said comments made by former Garda Commissioner Drew Harris at an Oireachtas committee that not all of the facts on the matter were public, prolonged the ordeal for Cunnane.<\/p>\n

The detective is to receive some \u20ac260,000 in damages following a confidential settlement in his civil damages case against the force and the Government in advance of a full High Court<\/a> trial.<\/p>\n

Cunnane declined to speak directly to the media.<\/p>\n

The GRA is seeking a review of the suspension process and a motion calling for an independent appeals mechanism over suspensions to be put in place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The case of a garda who was suspended and placed under criminal investigation for lending a man an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,9,10,18,13,14,61425,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,2354,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-446600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-garda-representative-association","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-mayo","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116443310177679728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}