The Indo Daily: Justice Derailed | Ep 2 – The Sleeping Judge

The Sallins train robbery scandal

The Sallins train robbery was one of the most daring and lucrative heists in the history of the Irish State. And for Osgur Breatnach, a journalist and activist, it was the beginning of an ordeal that haunts him to this day.

He was arrested that morning in 1976, as one of six accused of carrying out the robbery. One week before Christmas of the same year, he and his co-accused were brought into the Special Criminal Court and charged with the crime. It would become one of the most dramatic and longest-running criminal trials in the history of the State.

During the trial it was alleged that one of the non-jury Special Criminal Court judges was falling asleep and not hearing evidence, but when this was raised by the defence team, it was ignored. Then the same judge died and it transpired he had been in ill health and on medication. The trial was abandoned and a new trial a few months later focused on the “confessions” of the men.

Osgur would later be convicted of the crime and sentenced to 12 years in Portlaoise prison. The IRA would eventually take responsibility for the infamous heist, leading to a presidential pardon and two convictions being overturned.

In the final episode of this two-part Indo Daily documentary special, Kevin Doyle revisits the Sallins Train Robbery, speaking to Osgur Breathnach about the trial of the ‘sleeping Judge’, living with PTSD, and why he feels a public inquiry is justified for he and his co-accused.