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FAMILY AND COLLEAGUES of detective garda Jerry McCabe are gathering in Adare, Co Limerick to mark 20 years since his death at the hands of the IRA.
McCabe was killed when he was shot three times with an AK47 by a number of IRA members who were attempting to rob a post office in the town.
Another detective garda Ben O’Sullivan was injured in the hail of bullets.
This morning, 20 years on from that day, O’Sullivan joined Garda McCabe’s widow Anne McCabe as well as current and former gardaí at a memorial service at Adare Garda Station.
At a commemoration ceremony Ann McCabe, along with her daughter Stacey, laid flowers outside the station.
Members of the force performed a guard of honour and members of the Garda Band played a haunting rendition of the hymn, Abide With Me, which was sung at Det McCabe’s funeral mass.
Chief Superintendent David Sheahan, who laid a wreath, led senior members of the Limerick Garda Division, including Superintendent Derek Smart, Superintendent Tom O’Connor, and Superintendent Jim Ryan, in a minutes silence at 6.55am.
“For me, today is the same as 20 years ago on June 7th,” Ann McCabe said speaking afterwards.
Nothing ever changes, but you learn to live with it and get on with it.
Speaking publicly for the first time since that day, Ann O’Sullivan, wife of retired Detective Garda Ben O’Sullivan, said: “I found it very hard today.”
It brought back every hour of this time twenty years ago. It brought tears.
The killing of Garda McCabe provoked shock around the country 20 years ago, coming four months after the Provisional IRA called off its first ceasefire.
Ms O’Sullivan, who at the time worked as a nurse in the accident and emergency department at Limerick Regional Hospital, said:
I was off work that day and I got a phone call from a colleague of mine…she said I’ve bad news for you.I just got up from bed and went straight out to the hospital, and then I heard all the bad news, that Jerry had passed away and Ben was in Resus.
“You can imagine it was crazy… It was horrendous,” she added.
McCabe’s daughter Stacey, wept as she paid tribute to her late father.
“In the midst of sadness, we pray for thanksgiving for the inspiration and example we received in and through Dad,” she said.
We pray in thanksgiving for the love, light, and laughter he brought to our lives.
An emotional Ben O’Sullivan explained that he and Garda McCabe joined the detective branch on the same day and nearly always “worked as a team”.
“This morning’s ceremony has brought me to my knees really,” he said, adding that the shooting in 1996 was still “crystal clear in my head”.
You’re never expected to forget something like that. You’re not supposed to forget that. You’re supposed to take up the gauntlet and accept that it happened; you cannot turn the clock backwards.
He said he had “come to terms” with “the atrocity that took place this morning 20 years ago”, but “will never forget what happened”.
Four men were convicted of the manslaughter of McCabe, they are: Jeremiah Sheehy, Michael O’Neill, Kevin Walsh and Pearse McAuley.
All four were subsequently released after serving their sentence with McAuley last year jailed again for 12 years following a violent assault on his wife in which she was left with 13 stab wounds.
Speaking in the Dail in 2013, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams issued an apology on behalf of the republican movement for the death of Gerry McCabe and other Irish security forces who died during the Northern Ireland conflict.
- With reporting from David Raleigh.
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Murdered…he was murdered…not just shot dead!
Exactly Dan, the headline should read “Exactly 20 years since Detective Jerry Mc Cabe was murdered by the IRA”
And it’s 5 years since his murderer was greeted like a returning hero on his release from prison by sitting TD, and given a hero’s welcome to the SF Ard Fheis. And where is this IRA hero now? Back in jail for stabbing his wife 15 times.
It’s 13 years since the Sinn Fein organization gave one of his killers a standing ovation at their Ard Fheis. They treated McCauley as a hero that day.
As no doubt the branch men that colluded with MI6 et al to facilitate and cover up the Dublin and Monaghan atrocities were inadvertently lauded as heros by their Fianna Gowl/Tory handlers……c’est la guerre!
They also tried to get early release under the good Friday agreement for mccauley and Walsh by claiming the murdering of a garda in sleepy adare was “an act of war” during the troubles. That alone mocks the peace process and the agreement. Mcauley butchered his wife who is an ex sf councillor who she met while he was in prison for SF to pull support. Sf are so morally bankrupt and so out of sync with the decent people in Ireland. We won’t forget !!!
Can’t beat the old whataboutery! Regardless of what branch men might have done the treatment of MacAuley says all that needs to be said about Princess Fiona of the McDonalds and dear old Grizzly, lover of bears and naked trampolining. Or maybe it doesn’t.
Bluebot malfunction 101 by the sound of it there! McAuley is a cowardly dirtbird who will get his commupance, gan dabht!
wasnt gardai mccabes murderer given a standing ovation by SF?
As did West-Brit quislings laud and defer to that odious auld kraut Windsor and her blood-quaffing inbred spawn……not mention Thatcher, Blair, Heath, Mayhew, King, Whitelaw, Paisley, Robinson, dis-Gusty Spence, Wright, Tebbit, (T)Hurd, Britton, Mountbatten (King of Kincora) etc, etc, etc! Apologies if any adopted subjects were omitted from the various Late Late ring licking soirées…ad nauseum!
And amazingly people still vote for SF, they were up to their eyes in murder, bank robberies, money and fuel laundering, tax evasion and tobacco smuggling and most likely still are. But they are good republicans!
People still eulogise the Old IRA too. Do you?
True proinsias the ira made money by robbing the rich the governments of f.g and f.f done it by robbing the poor.
Robbing the rich! Post Offices were perhaps the easiest and most frequent target they went after sure what’s wrong with stealing taxpayers and pensioners money!
Robbing banks, sure poor people have no bank accounts!
The Old IRA (IRB) and the Provos are two distinct and unrelated entities. The Sinn Fein/IRA murderers and bank robbers have no right to the legacy of those who fought in 1916.
In your mind they are unrelated but that’s up to you. It’s not what I asked though. If the Provos are to be condemned, should the Old IRA be condemnded too?
Really I wasn’t aware that when banks where robbed. They took the money out of the poor peoples personal accounts although it wouldn’t surprise me.
Isnt that what governments do steal taxpayers money.
Dont even engage with the murder apologists Proinsias. This is what lies at the heart of SF , people who silently support the murder of a serving Garda in the line of Duty , gunned down mercilessly by robbers and thieves cloaking themselves as republicans , nothing more than murdering terrorists. And of course these guys were collected from prison by a serving TD , Martin Ferris. tell us all we need to know about this mob . Look at Gerry O D there justifying armed bank robberies , because the IRA are robin hood characters teaching FG /FF a lesson .And as Mise Eire say below , Sinbots want to get rid of the special criminal court ???????????? You wonder who the Kinihans , Hutches, McCarthy dunduns et al vote for?
So Gerry it’s ok to steal the money if you’re stealing from the taxpayer?
IRA/SF supporters still equivocating!
sf were not involved in the 1916 rising
The old IRA had a mandate from the 1918 Dáil. The provos had jack shit public mandate.
O Donnell you are a moron
There’s no if , if the Provos are to be condemned , Jesus ur beyond pathetic , murdering thugs, and wanabee hangers on like you , an embarrassment to decent people..
Id say Gerry ud know a lot paying tax .
@frank Where or when did Padraig Pearse and Tom Clarke get a mandate?
Still waiting to find out if the Old IRA are to be condmned in the same way the provos are being condemned.
I think the original point was that one bears no resemblance to the other. So it’s an irrelevant question, and as such it is not worth answering. So keep waiting.
Both fought for the same thing using the same method. So stop living in denial. Answer the question.
Not sure why anyone would bother entertaining your whataboutery. You can try to frame your heroes in any light you want but this was murder. Fan boys like you warmly welcomed the killer at the SF ard fheis – he only became a bad republican when he knifed his wife. Strange moral compass you deflectors possess.
Michael Collins routinely had members of the security forces shot dead in bed
What were they fighting for when they shot Gerry McCabe then? That’s pretty relevant to the topic, and to your question, so why don’t you answer that.
our leaders of 1916 didnt wear ski masks, can the same be said of the vile provo subhumans?
why cant we just hang all terrorists immediately upon conviction?
Tommy, your leaders in 1916 were in tan colours. Beat it
james connolly was a british soldier
So was James Blunt
Silence from Tir Eoghan. No doubt we’ll hear more of his noble patriotic rhetoric when he’s finished in the bookies’.
Fighting supposedly for funds to keep the campaign on the go, happened during the rising too.
fighting?? oh do tell shinnerbot
To take part in a violent struggle involving the exchange of physical blows or the use of weapons.
in limerick?
Do I need to explain everything? Probably raising funds in limerick FOR elsewhere
@Cant think of one Silence? From me? You wish. Still waiting on an answer just.
tyrone brit you looking forward to the border going back up?
Mmm. Plenty of time to be waiting, I’d imagine. You people always have plenty of time on your hands. I think it’s your main problem.
Oh yes. While you’re at it, do you want to say what they were fighting for when they got Gerry McCabe, or not? I’m guessing not, because there is no palatable answer as far as you’re concerned. Is there. You’ll probably come back with something about paedophile priests or corrupt politicians, because that’s all you have in response to questions you don’t like. Else you’ll just stonewall it. Either or.
@proinsias amazing people are voting ff fg labour when their up to their eyes in corruption and tax dodging a lot of people dead now because of their policies.
The same thing the Old IRA were fighting for when they disappeared over 200 (mostly innocent) people. So I yet again find myself asking… are the Old IRA to be condemned too?
Spot in Clifford , and that brainwashed individual will take your logical point and twist it , as he has been programmed to, Jesus I have to laugh , a shinner actually demanding that someone answer a question , the irony of it, puke inducing muck, as usual .
dont forget about witness intimidation, gun running and the odd knee-capping.
It was, according to Sinn Fein, “a fund raising exercise”. How was a deliberate act to fire AK47s at an occupied car result in a manslaughter verdict? Only in Ireland.
Witnesses were intimidated and threatened,one witness was so afraid for his life that he spent months in gaol for contempt of court because he wouldn’t repeat under oath what he had previously told the gardai.
Maybe he lied the first time and contempt is better than perjury. Thanks for your time ;)
I can’t believe it was 20 years ago. Jerry was such a kind and lovely man. So are his family. I still remember lining the road with my school when his coffin passed it was just so heartbreaking and hard to understand why someone would murder him. 20 years on the feeling is the same. Thoughts with all his family and friends today.
Also died today in 1921 was Edmond Foley, executed by the RIC. Hung by his neck until dead. RIP Edmond. Thoughts are with your family.
Red thumbs? But I’m just highlighting another unjust death!
I would support retrospective hanging for all terrorists :)
I’d pay for the scaffold if you would be the test subject.
I have read about McCabe.i feel the government didnt provide McCabe and his co partners with the right equipment to protect a van with 80 thousand pounds which was a considerable amount of money back then.which brings me back to the question why wasn’t the army who would of being equipped for doing that job not doing it who was in government at that time should also be held responsible as well for his death.
Ah right Bobby, so it was the government’s fault, not the guys who turned up with guns and shot an unarmed man?
Check out the big brain on Bobby!!
Garda McCabe was not a terrorist!
Bobby so it’s the governments fault not the IRA and Sinn Fein for shooting him dead. An organisation you support?
You sound like the type of clever guy who will blame the home owner who dies in a burglary because he didn’t have secure Windows and doors! I have read some idiotic comments on the journal but this the best yet!
@ Cant think. and that’s one of Bobby more reasoned statements ;-)
Just as well he wasn’t a subservise whistleblower type, as the Blueshirt Riot Club would be out p¡ssing on his grave instead of pretending not to be disingenuously defiling his memory for political penalty points! ;~}
His name was Gerry , Phelan
Life is all about good and bad experience
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No doubt Ferris will have a little party with his pals. Nearly forgot, one of them is back in jail for the attack on his wife.
Hard to believe Ferris got reelected after picking that s(umball up from prison.
It’s not hard at all, Al Ca. That’s the shinner fanbase for you.
Rather elect corrupt money worshippers wannabe english arselickin c**** instead
havent the shinners came a long way from ‘brits out’ to administering british rule in northern ireland :D
Tommy, didn’t your mother ever teach you not to talk outta your ar**. Clearly not
having a hard day defending the indefensible, i pity you shinnerbot
How so? Ignore rational discussions with people, what’s the point in conversing. You, Tommy are a buffoon. Sick of listening to you.
The shinners have realized that in order to remain popular, they have to be content to see the nasty “west brits” pumping £11 bn of UK taxpayers into the north every year.
It’s this callous murder and attempted murder carried out to raise funds within the bowel movement that stopped Sinn Fein from becoming a normal political party of Government in Ireland. Hell will freeze over before they are allowed have the Justice portfolio in any future administration. Oh and for good measure they also want to get rid of the Special Criminal Court. We all know why.
Gerry you’re in LaLa land, and don’t forget the “Good Republicans” who raped and abused women and children.
don’t forget those raped and abused by the church and covered up by the gardai and successive irish governments or those raped and abused by the political elites and members of the gardai who where threatened and intimidated into silence. The gardai, political parties and churches wrecked a lot more havoc on irish people than the ira ever did. But then again if you also control the media and are still in power then you get to tell people who they should be outraged at.
You’re right Gerry. The church’s child sex abuse completely excuses the Republican movement’s child sex abuse. That’s not an utterly sick thing to think at all. Your morals are impeccable.
Read Gerry O’Donnell and then explain why anyone would vote for IRA/SF.
brinster not just the church political members of f.g and f.f who where friends of the gardai who also had covered for their own abusers. I am not making excuses just wondering why you only seem to have a problem with one group of abusers
@ Gerry
I condemn all abuse and cover ups.
But like most normal people, when abuse is uncovered, my first instinct isn’t to scream and rant and rave about others, to try to deflect attention.
If it were ever to emerge that any other party subjected rape victims to kangaroo courts, I’d condemn them too.
Screaming and ranting and raving about others is what you do when you have no valid argument. Attack is the best form of defence and so on. Oldest trick in the Shinner playbook.
No kneecapping for the local priest or bishop, though.
@Powerabbey
Reading his comments on this thread you could be excused for thinking that maybe Gerry is just a plant put here by opponents in order to destroy the credibility of SF and their supporters and damage their chances at the poll booth.
Either that or he’s just an outdated and bigoted psychopathic idiot who’s moral compass is not just damaged but non-existent.
Hardly, everytime there is an ‘article’ released by the journal, it is always against the republican side, it is never about loyalist actions and the same people pile on the comment board and try to suffocate anyone who dares to speak back. The standard codeword used by these fools is whataboutery and is used to try to deflect the fact that other people/groups were involved in the same behaviour for the same purposes.
Poor put upon republicans. Can’t even celebrate when one of their gang murders a cop anymore.
Who’s celebrating? This is faux outrage 20 years later from a bunch of clowns on a forum.
what other group murdered gardai in the republic shinnerbot?
What other group bombed civilians in our country aided by the English in Monaghan and Dublin? Are 34 deaths, 300 injured less valuable to you as it wasn’t by the IRA than 1 Garda? I think all is atrocious, but which is worse to you Tommy?
if you have any information on that you go to the gardai shinnerbot :)
Ask your buddies Tommy, they know.
Shame on Sinn Fein and their so called army IRA. All of the one sort. Killed Jerry McCabe as he was trying to protect the people of the Irish Republic. What hypocrites. This will never be forgotten by the event people of Ireland.
mcCabe died protecting a van full of money irish big fellow.the army should of being doing that job I blame the establishment.what I cant understand about this why was it detectives guarding money and not the army
lets hope that all the victims of the troubles get as much coverage or faux outrage. can the journal remember all those killed by the republicans, loyalists, the british army, the ruc and the gardai and let the people see that all life is cherished equally.
He wasn’t a victim of the troubles – he was the victim of a psychopathic criminal gang masquerading under a false banner.
That’s why SF/IRA’s brand of republicanism disgusts so many people; a cover for protectionism, murder, rape and brutal suppression of dissent.
No wonder they still have only one leader after four decades.
True alpha he wasn’t just a victim he was hand picked for special treatment.
Some victims are more important than others!
Is that just the Nationalist Gerry or do you include Unionist victims? More red herrings from SF supporters. No change there then. The SF moral compass once more needs repair.
The frenzy has already started in relation to this anniversary. There are so many other anniversaries that are ignored or indeed swept aside even though they deserve the same coverage and responses. Only a few weeks ago we had the 42ndanniversary of the Dublin Monaghan bombings in which so many lost their lives – was there mass coverage and outpourings of hysteria about the lack of will on the part of successive Irish Govts to try and solve this and bring some kind of justice for those who died that day and indeed their families? Of course not.
Was the role of the British in the bombings that day and indeed in other events preceding it questioned? Or the refusal of the British to hand over files relating to those events? No. The silence from most of our own media, politicians and indeed to contributors to forums such as this tells its own story. Why do most only seem to get agitated and exercised when in their minds they can connect events to SF yet they ignore those that can be connected to other Govt parties or indeed the British, BSpecials, RUC, UDA, UDR etc (the list is very long)
We have heard a lot about Kingsmill lately (which indeed was brutal and should not have happened) but yet choose to ignore what led to it (started with the Miami Showband).
There is a hierarcly of victims relating to events in Irish history. Sad to say the media play a very big role in what receives coverage and what does not. Thankfully many are becoming more aware and challenging. Long may it continue.
He was a servant of the state doing his sworn duty Gerry. Those animals armed themselves that morning with automatic rifles knowing full well that there would be gardai protecting that an post delivery. They shot at that garda car not as a warning but with intent to kill the occupants. So yes in a way he was handpicked for special treatment he was murdered for getting out of bed that morning and upholding his oath to protect the Irish people. If you can’t get your tiny mind around that fact maybe you can get a friend to explain it to you using crayons or some other method you might understand.
How many people did the guards murder gerry?
Damian obviously you cant read.
Patrick we will never know.
Am going to make this simple for you (I don’t have crayons so I cant draw you any pictures) there was no post office robbery and never was going to be.
So McAuley et al just turned up to do a bit of cop killing?
im delighted that idiots like you gerry will never get your united ireland, its perfect karma :)
Fact one particular “cowboy” could never be got by the guards for his involvement in this case.
That’s “good republicans” for you!
“..a psychopathic criminal gang..” not unlike those murderous outlaws Daesh who claim to represent the Islamic State
That doesn’t make sense. Daesh don’t “claim” to represent the Islamic state, they are the Islamic state. Daesh is just arabic for IS.
Alice Guthrie explains in Decoding Daesh.Those who executed Jerry McCabe claim to represent the noble ideals of Tone,Emmett …our Republican Heritage just as ISIS or ISIL have hijacked an Islamic cause.
Dominic, it’s Emmet with one T, not “Emmett”
(Correct.Ant.Respect:one T in each ) Limerick..Ireland..will not forget the horrific assault on Jerry McCabe and Ben O’Sullivan
Does it piss you off that they surrendered to England?
Must piss your dad off thay he never had a rubber that night
I’m sure he regrets the rubber bullet he didn’t fire into your face.
You would be happy if a Brit or RUC man shot an unarmed person in the face with a rubber bullet. Must be a nice person!
His murderers should have been executed – if ever there was a case for capital punishment to be returned to the constitution, killing a member of the gardai is it. none of these murderers should be living and breathing today. One of the states worst moments letting them off with manslaughter.
Gone Feisin is really giving us an insight into the mindset of IRA supporters. Sounds like a child throwing a tantrum. This article is about the anniversary of a murdered Garda.
Actually if you read my points throughout, you will find that I highlighted other occasions when people were murdered, on this date and historically, yet these were ‘red thumbed’. Do these people not deserve your pity? Does the fact that they don’t fit into your narrative of ‘only the IRA is bad’ mean that their more numerous lives are worth less? I get tired of reading the same pro british drivel over and over again from bigots and cowards on here. I hope that the comments sections here aren’t representative of our populace, for if it is I fear for the future of our fine island. A perusal around the articles even from today show a fiercely capitalist nature, standing on the little guy to get the smallest bonus while supporting practical abolition of social welfare, a pro british slant as always to a point of denigrating our heroes from 1916 to mocking the deaths of civilians to make a point and trying to turn a debate into a farce. Queue the whataboutery and associated drivel.
Fact one particular”cowboy”could never be got by the guards for his involvement in this case.
Who?
Nickname “cowboy” limerick
Victory to the IRA…that should piss off a few reactionary rednecks blueshirts and west brits on here.
Yes a great IRA victory after 30 years of killing their political wing is administrating British rule in Ireland
Love the avatar. Nice to see a picture of Your Maj in the colours of a Brit team.
calls people west brit while displaying a british soccer teams jersey… oh where do you start :D
Tommy tommy, gis a wave, tommy tommy gis a wave
When was this IRA victory you speak of. Tell us. By the way, gunning down the defenceless, planting a bomb or lobbing a few mortar rounds and then running away as fast as your legs can carry you doesn’t really qualify as a ‘victory’.
I’m confident he was pulling your leg to make a point, which you fell for. More guts to do the above than to shy away and lube yourself up for more english
It takes a lot of things to stand in front of someone who is unarmed and/or defenceless and end their life in cold blood.. Guts is not one of them.
I dunno about this incident specifically but it takes guts to stand up for what you believe in, specially in the face of multiple governments trying to keep the status quo
Don’t engage with the IRA/SF cult members on this site. The will defend any atrocity. The believe:
(a) Gerry McCabe was responsible for his own death (b) Maria Cahill was responsible for her own rape (c) Paudie McGahon was responsible for his own rape (d) kangaroo courts dispense justice (e) Gurry was never in the IRA (f) Gurry did not know about paedophiles (g)supports Good Republicans…… I could go on and on.
Probably good advice Powerabbey. Barstool patriots, one and all.
How is walking up to someone in a car with a AK-47 shooting him in cold blood manslaughter? It’s Murder plain and simple. Our legal system is a joke. How those two were released from prison is a disgrace. And all involved should hang their heads in shame.
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