THE confrontation of Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness by David Kelly, whose then 35-year-old soldier father was shot dead along with garda recruit Gary Sheehan during the rescue of Quinnsworth executive Don Tidey on 16 December 1983 (he had been kidnapped three weeks earlier in Dublin), encouraged me to have a look at the circumstances in which some gardaí died while on duty.
Whatever your thoughts on our police force, there are and have been thousands of brave and excellent gardaí who have applied the law in a fair, honourable and honest manner, sometimes paying the ultimate price for their bravery.
Eighty-five names are on on the garda roll of honour and they are remembered by a memorial site in Dublin Castle.
These men gave their lives doing their job – some were armed, many were not.
Here, we take a look at some of those who gave their lives; in doing so, I pay homage to the rest. As we have mentioned Gary Sheehan, perhaps we might have a closer look at the events leading up to his death.
The garda recruit was born in Carricmacross, Co Monaghan on 24 September 1960.
He joined the force on 7 September 1983, following the footsteps of his father and grandfather before him.
On 24 November that year, Don Tidey was leaving his 13-year-old daughter to school.
On the road just outside his house, what appeared to be a garda checkpoint was set up. Tidey stopped and gave his name when requested.
The bogus gardaí then produced guns and kidnapped Mr Tidey.
This resulted in a three-week search, which culminated in his discovery at Derrada Wood, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim.
He managed to free himself and escape during the shootout, but later it was discovered that Gary Sheehan was shot and killed, as was Private Patrick Kelly, whose body lay 12 feet away.
Pte Kelly was a native of Moate, Co Westmeath and was serving in Custume Barracks, Athlone.
He was married to Catherine and they had four sons, the youngest was 11 months’ old when his father was murdered.
The IRA men made their escape behind a withering volley of fire from automatic weapons. Garda Sheehan is remembered by a medal bearing his name, which is presented to the best recruit at all passing-out ceremonies in Templemore, while his comrades and people from his home town erected a memorial to Pte Kelly in Moate.
Twenty-five years later, former IRA man Brendan McFarlane was tried and acquitted of involvement in the shootout. No-one else was ever held to account.
Detective Sgt Dennis (Dinny) O’Brien was born in Pim Street, Dublin 8 on 17 June 1898.
He was a man well used to action. At the age of 17, he fought alongside his brothers Lawrence and Patrick, under the command of Eamonn Ceannt at Marrowbone Lane during the 1916 Rising.
The brothers served in the IRA during the War of Independence. He took the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War, joining C Company, 4th Battalion of the Dublin Brigade. He took command of that unit when his brother Patrick was killed in Enniscorthy in 1922. Earlier, the brothers had been part of the action in the Four Courts.
He worked as an accounts clerk with the ESB following the war, but remained a member of the IRA until joining the gardaí in 1933.
He was promoted to detective sergeant in 1937 and was stationed with the Special Branch in Dublin Castle.
Members of the IRA were collaborating with the Nazis and the government ordered a clampdown.
This caused friction between the Special Branch and the IRA, who now considered the branch worse enemies than the British.
On 9 September 1942, O’Brien was getting into his car outside his house in Ballyboden when he was shot dead by three IRA men armed with Thompson sub-machine guns.
Two of his killers wrapped their weapons in their trenchcoats and cycled away, while future IRA chief of staff Charlie Kerins left on foot, leaving his bicycle behind.
Two years later, he was charged with O’Brien’s murder, convicted and hanged in Mountjoy on 1 December 1944 by Albert Pierrepoint. Dennis O’Brien was survived by wife Anne and daughters Fiona and Eithne.
The next garda to die in the line of duty was Richard Fallon, who was killed on 3 April 1970.
He, along with Garda Paul Firth, confronted three armed members of Saor Éire, a name taken from a similar organisation back in the 1930s.
This was a group of republican radicals made up of ex-IRA members and Trotskyites who had just robbed the Royal Bank of Ireland on Arran Quay. Richard Fallon was born in Moneen, Kilrooskey, Co Roscommon on 18 December 1926.
He was the first garda to die in the new wave of troubles in Northern Ireland and would be awarded the Scott Medal for bravery.
On that fatal day, Fallon and Firth arrived by car and confronted the men at the bank.
They were met with a hail of gunfire. Firth, who was behind Fallon, hit the ground and called out to the squad car driver to summon assistance. As he reached to seize the nearest gunman, Fallon was shot twice by one of the robbers.
One bullet hit him in the shoulder, with the fatal shot catching him in the neck, killing him instantly.
Over the following years, three men were tried and acquitted of his murder. They were Seán Morrissey, Joseph Dillon and Patrick Francis Keane.
Thirty years later, the Fallon family accused the government of assisting members of Saor Éire to escape in the aftermath of the killing.
Michael Reynolds was a native of Kilconnell, near Ballinasloe, Co Galway.
He was born on 9 February 1945. He joined the gardaí in March 1970.
On 11 September 1975, he was off duty and out driving with his wife Vera and their two-year-old daughter Emer (who would die at the age of 24). At the same time, three armed raiders had just robbed the Killester branch of the Bank of Ireland and, as they made their getaway, almost collided with Reynolds’s car.
The garda immediately set off in pursuit of the robbers and the chase ended at St Anne’s Park, Raheny, where the culprits abandoned their car and took off on foot. Garda Reynolds gave chase and brought down the robber who was carrying the proceeds of the robbery.
One of the others shouted to release him, and when Reynolds refused to do so, he was shot in the head and died two hours later. Noel and Marie Murray were sentenced to death for the crime but, on appeal, this was commuted to life imprisonment.
The Scott Gold Medal for bravery was presented posthumously to Garda Reynolds’s wife Vera in Templemore on16 July 1976.
In January 1972, seven men escaped from the prison ship Maidstone, which was moored in Belfast Lough. One of the escapees was Belfast-born Provisional IRA man Peter Rogers.
He moved to Wexford, set up a vegetable business, got married but was still active in republican circles.
Born in Limerick on 16 November 1937, Seamus Quaid joined the gardaí in May 1958.
He was stationed in Wexford and transferred the hurling talents he had displayed in his native county to his new abode, turning out for the town’s Faythe Harriers, while winning an All-Ireland senior medal as left-half-forward with Wexford in 1960.
On the evening of 13 October 1980 – a day when two armed robberies on banks in Callan, Co Kilkenny had taken place – the now detective garda Seamus Quaid and Donal Lyttleton were carrying out enquiries in the Wexford area.
Late in the evening, the two detectives stopped a van at Ballyconnick Quarry, Cleariestown, near Rathangan. This was Peter Rogers’s vegetable van, and when the detectives attempted to search it, Rogers pulled a gun and fired over their heads demanding to be let go.
Quaid in turn pulled his gun and shot Rogers in the leg in an attempt to disable him.
Rogers then shot the detective, who later died from his injuries.
The van was later found to contain explosives.
Rogers was sentenced to life but was released under the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
* Continued next week