THERE”S nowhere to hide. We will get you. That was the ominous message from Chief Superintendent Derek Smart in Limerick today to two suspects still on the run after the murder of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe in Adare 30 years ago.
The Chief Super was speaking after a memorial Mass to mark the 30th anniversary of the botched robbery in which Detective MCabe was shot dead and his partner, Detective Garda Ben O’Sullivan was seriously wounded.
“This is still very much an active investigation,” the senior officer told reporters. Asked if he believed the two wanted men will be apprehended he said “I have no doubt. The world is getting smaller…it has been well publicised that people are being brought back from abroad to face the consequences of their actions”.
He appealed directly for the two men to come forward or for anyone with information to contact any Garda station or the Garda confidential line.
The late Gard’s widow, Ann McCabe and their family attended the Mass in the church of Our Lady of The Rosary.
Breaking silence for the first time in many years afterwards she said “Grief is not just for now. It is for a lifetime. My life stood still on June 7th”.
Thanking those family, friends and garda colleagues who offered her and her children “huge support” Ann said that even after 30 years “it is still hard to believe” that her husband was killed that day.
Speaking about those responsible she said “They’re no longer part of my life – I have dealt with them.”
“We fought a bit of a battle all right. We shouldn’t have had to but politics came into it. We dealt with it, hard though it was”.
Asked what Gerry would have made of his legacy, his widow said: “Gerry loved his job. There was a lot of seriousness attached to it. But wherever Gerry and Ben (O’Sullivan) were, there was laughter.”
The 53-year old Kerry native, who lived and served in the Limerick Garda Division, was gunned down by a PIRA gang during a botched robbery of a post office van carrying cash.
Det Garda McCabe and his colleague, Mallow native, Det Garda Ben O’Sullivan, were providing an armed escort for the mail van when it was intercepted by the gang at Main Street, Adare, on June 7, 1996.
Det Garda McCabe was killed instantly when the gang opened fire with automatic firearms on their Garda car. Det Garda O’Sullivan, who survived despite being shot 11 times when 15 rounds were fired by the gang, died four years ago, aged 78.
Senior members of the force, including many retired members who served with both detetctive, attended the Mass at Our Lady of the Rosary church on the Ennis road.
Among them was retired senior Garda John Kerins, who was one the leaders of the investigation into the Adare attack.
Celebrating the Mass of the feast of Corpus Christi, Parish Priest Des McAuliffe asked for prayers for the late Detective Garda and “all who have given their lives in service of our country”.
Four members of the gang, Kevin Walsh, Michael O’Neill, both from Patrickswell, and Jeremiah Sheehy, from Rathkeale, and Pearse McAuley, Strabane (now deceased), were initially charged with the murder of Det Garda McCabe and the attempted murder of Det Garda Ben O’Sullivan.
Manslaughter pleas offered by the four were accepted by the State after alleged IRA intimidation of key prosecution witnesses.
The gang members had their terms reduced for good behaviour while behind bars.
A fifth man, John Quinn, from Faha, Patrickswell, was jailed for six years for conspiracy to commit robbery of the post van that the two Special Branch detectives had been protecting when they were ambushed, but he was not present in Adare on the day.
Two men are still wanted by Gardai.