Three men who plotted to bomb a Galway mosque are jailed in Ireland after a random drug search uncovered explosives

Garret Pollock, 36, from Annalong, Co Down, was sentenced to 10½ years — the stiffest of three terms handed down at Ireland's Special Criminal Court — for his role as the ringleader of a pipe-bomb plot targeting the Maryam Mosque in Galway. Co-defendants Karolis Peckauskas, 39, of Drogheda, and Darren Gorman, 34, of Portlaoise, each received eight-year sentences, with the final year of all three terms suspended.

The group called itself the Irish Defence Army; all three had issued apologies for the planned attack before sentencing.

Gardaí stumbled on the plot by chance — a routine drug search of Pollock and Peckauskas's car uncovered explosive materials, weapons and terrorist planning evidence.

Judge Caroline Biggs told the court the men had brought 'shame and embarrassment on all of us' in a country she described as diverse.