Former garda chief to chair awards for journalism
Former garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan has been appointed to chair a high-profile journalism award at UCD business school.
The country’s first female garda commissioner, who stepped down in 2017 amid various garda scandals, had at times a turbulent relationship with the media in Ireland.
In 2018, she sought all information held on her by a number of major media organisations, citing EU data protection rules.
And in 2015 she defended appointing her husband, Detective Superintendent Jim McGowan, to lead a criminal investigation into contacts between a senior garda and journalists.
On August 21, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School appointed Ms O’Sullivan the chairperson of the Business Journalist Awards. Other judges include senior media figures such as author and broadcaster Dearbhail McDonald and former Sunday Business Post editor Emmet Oliver.
On its website, UCD’s Graduate Business School describes the former garda commissioner as an “experienced executive leader” who recently served as UN assistant secretary general for the United Nations Department of Safety and Security in New York following her retirement from her 36-year garda career.
The panel of 13 judges are not receiving any monetary payment for their role, UCD said.
Ms O’Sullivan was accused of being privy to or involved in attempts to target or discredit garda whistleblowers Maurice McCabe and Nicky Keogh after they made protected disclosures. However, the publication of the fourth interim report of the Disclosures Tribunal in 2021 dismissed all of the allegations against the former garda commissioner.
She served as commissioner between 2014 and 2017. Her retirement came as a surprise, despite mounting pressure amid garda scandals including falsified alcohol breath tests, wrongful motoring convictions, financial irregularities at the garda training college, and the ill-treatment of garda whistleblowers.
Speaking last year on RTÉ radio, she admitted that she had not wanted to step down.
“I saw the impact it was having on people around me, particularly my family and people close to me,” she said. “I felt that I had so much to do. Did I want to retire? No, I felt we were on the right path... But c’est la vie.”