Trainee gardaí granted permission to challenge dismissals for handcuffing fellow student

High Court Reporter

Four trainee gardaí who had contracts terminated by An Garda Síochána after they handcuffed a fellow student at the Garda College in Templemore last year have been granted High Court permission to challenge their dismissals.

At the High Court this week, Judge Mary Rose Gearty granted permission to the four trainees - Rory Callaghan, David Hanley, Alan Kenny and Darragh O'Connell - who are all seeking an order quashing the December 2025 decision by the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána to terminate their contracts over the incident.

O'Connell, Callaghan, Hanley and Kenny, who were all resident trainees at Templemore Garda College at the time of the June 5th, 2025, incident, have taken their case against the Commissioner and also seek a High Court declaration that their dismissals were contrary to the principles and processes of natural justice.

The four trainees submit that they did engage in an exercise in consensual handcuffing of a fellow student at his room at the college on the night of June 5th, 2025, but that this was in the context of being urged by an instructor to practice handcuffing outside the scheduled courses provided by the training college.

Three trainees - Callaghan, Hanley and Kenny - represented by Mark Harty, claim that the incident concerned "a number of trainees engaged in almost entirely consensual and jovial horseplay which involved the consensual handcuffing of another trainee for a time in general light-hearted horseplay".

The three submit that the incident was a "minor one in which no harm came to any individual".

All four trainees submit they were later instructed to attend a meeting with Garda Inspectors without being told in advance what the meeting was about.

It is claimed that the trainees felt the interviewing inspectors had "instantly decided" they were guilty of misconduct and that one inspector called the incident "the most egregious act she had ever seen in her 30 years at the college".

It is claimed that the trainees were not informed of their right of appeal and that an opinion had been formed by interviewing inspectors that they were guilty before they were heard.

They claim that they were not afforded the right to either cross-examine their accuser nor challenge the decision to suspend their training in late June 2025.

Trainee Darragh O'Connell, represented by Garnet Orange, submits that the group was encouraged by superiors to practice with handcuffs outside of their classes, but that "at no stage was there any attempt to embarrass or bully any other trainee, and the prevailing atmosphere was one of the group having good fun relating to the use of handcuffs".

The applicants claim they were not supplied with a copy of a complaint issued on June 19th, 2025, nor with full particulars of the precise matters alleged.

After a suitability assessment, however, a decision from the Garda Commissioner, dated December 11th, 2025, issued the termination of all of the trainees' contracts.

It is claimed by the trainees that An Garda Síochána acted unlawfully, prejudicially and outside of its powers in the process of the disciplinary decision and failed to apply fair procedures.

It is also claimed that the decision to terminate the contracts was unlawful by reason of inadequate regard to the entirety of the time the trainees were in training and the positive factors therein.

The trainees deny the accusation by interviewing inspectors that their handcuffed colleague "put up a resistance".

They say that the group were discussing and demonstrating how to handcuff a resisting suspect in "a real-life scenario" and that their fellow student agreed to replicate this while "joking" during the exercise.

The trainees claim that there was consent to the handcuffing and that no "inappropriate force", as alleged by Garda superiors, was used.

After granting leave for judicial review, Judge Gearty adjourned the matter to May.