Court hears 'Irish Defence Army' planned sledgehammer and pipe bomb attack on Galway mosque

Mixed · 2The Special Criminal Court heard on Monday 5 October that a group styling itself the 'Irish Defence Army' planned to smash the windows of a mosque with sledgehammers and throw pipe bombs inside to make a 'public statement'. 1 2 Mixed · 2The three-judge court heard that the defendants had a Signal group chat called 'Shadows of Eire', in which they shared information on making improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and discussed plans to attack a mosque. 1 2 Mixed · 2The plan was foiled when a Garda drug unit stopped two of the group's members in a car and noted that one of them, Garrett Pollack, was evasive, seemed nervous and had a shaking leg; the search found written oaths, crests, a group manifesto and materials for making IEDs. 1 2

Mixed · 2Investigators found the group had prepared a statement, written in the past tense, claiming responsibility for bombing a mosque in Galway. 1 2 Left · 1The group also filmed a video warning of further attacks, saying 'an eye for an eye is going to be our approach going forward'; it named mosques, anyone who facilitated accommodation for international protection applicants, and estate agents as legitimate targets, and said it would not target women or children 'unless the woman is a threat to our country or loved ones'. 1 Left · 1Det Insp Alan McDevitt said the Irish Defence Army formed in October 2025 as a splinter from the larger Irish Citizens Army, and described it as a right-wing extremist, terrorist group with an anti-immigration ideology. 1

Left · 1Karolis Peckauskas (39), of Drogheda, Co Louth, Darren Gorman (34), of Portlaoise, Co Laois, and Garrett Pollock (36), of Annalong, Co Down, have pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in terrorist or terrorist-linked activity, by attempting to set fire to the Maryam Mosque on Monivea Road, Galway, between 4 and 5 November 2025, an offence aggravated by hatred. 1 Left · 1Pollock on Monday also pleaded guilty to possessing an explosive substance on 4 November. 1 Left · 1McDevitt said gardaí stopped Pollock and Peckauskas in a black BMW in Portlaoise on 4 November 2025; both carried knives, and the boot held a Tricolour, cable ties, tactical vests, hatchets, a lump hammer, masks, pipe cap ends and five litres of peroxide, which can be used to make pipe bombs. Asked to account for the items, Pollock said: 'We've done nothing yet.' 1

Left · 1A search of Pollock's van, parked outside Peckauskas's home in Drogheda, found four IEDs in a hidden drawer. 1 Left · 1Peckauskas's barrister Morgan Shelley said his client offers a 'sincere remorse and a sincere apology', particularly to the mosque-going community, and became radicalised through online groups and conspiracy theories. Lawyers for Gorman and Pollock will make pleas in mitigation next Friday. 1