Book review: Tracking down a garda killer

'Murder At Lordship' is  full of the kind of gripping detail and dogged legwork that could grace any fictional case

Detective Adrian Donohoe was murdered at the Lordship Credit Union in January 2013. File picture: Ciara Wilkinson.

• Murder at Lordship: Inside the Hunt for a Detective’s killer 
• Pat Marry and Robin Schiller
• Allen & Unwin, £14.99

The police procedural is a staple of crime fiction, but not so much of true crime literature.

The main reason for this is that the true crime version is weighed down with the plodding, boring and vital work that rarely makes for drama or tension.

Murder At Lordship is an exception and is full of the kind of gripping detail and dogged legwork that could grace any fictional case.

The murder of Detective Adrian Donohoe at the Co Dundalk Lordship Credit Union in January 2013 was a shocking and callous crime. 

Garda Donohoe and his partner Joe Ryan were providing a routine garda escort for credit unions in the area to bring their takings to a bank: the escort was deemed necessary on the basis of previous robberies.

At the credit union a gang pounced, closing off the exit with a car while another two men leaped a low wall and approached the gardaí and credit union volunteers who were leaving the credit union.

One of the raiders raised a shotgun and shot Adrian Donohoe in the face. 

It took all of 58 seconds for the gang to seize a bag of just under €7,000 and escape. 

They left a dead garda in their wake, a widow, two young children without a father, and a sense of shock ripping out from Garda Donohoe’s colleagues into the community.

The investigation that followed was relentless. For much of the following six years it was headed by Pat Marry, an experienced detective who has already written an account of his own life and is credited as co-author here.

Murder At Lordship gives a blow-by-blow narrative of the investigation, starting with the process of identifying possible suspects on the basis of previous activity and form.

Aaron Brady was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison for the capital murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe at Lordship Credit Union in 2013. File picture: Ciara Wilkinson

Early on, Aaron Brady came on their radar. One example of the level of evidence acquired was the canvassing of thousands of sites for possible CCTV footage which eventually yielded 416 CCTV exhibits collected from 320 premises. 

Despite all that, the gardaí did not have enough hard evidence to press charges against Brady.

He left for the USA, settling after a period in an Irish community in New York.

Back home, Marry and his colleagues set about the slow process of gathering the evidence required. 

They were sure they had the right man but they were also careful in assembling a case that would stand the test of a trial, where they knew they would be up against some of the state’s leading criminal lawyers.

They appealed to US authorities to help and that was forthcoming immediately, especially once the Americans knew that the crime at issue was killing a cop. 

“You are welcomed with open arms”, Marry says of the co-operation given between most law enforcement agencies, “brought in and made immediate friends that you’re a part of”.

Brady himself unwittingly provided the key missing evidence himself through repeated declarations in the Irish community of what he had been involved in back home.

The book covers the transatlantic element of the investigation thoroughly, culminating with Brady’s arrest on immigration issues and deportation home.

The subsequent trial was notable for attempts at intimidation of witnesses, which the trial judge described as “the most outrageous contempt I’ve ever come across in my time as a judge”.

Ultimately Brady was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Murder At Lordship is strong on the detail of the investigation while maintaining a narrative pace.

What really shines through the pages is the determination among the law enforcement officers on both sides of the Atlantic to ensure the murder of one of their own would not go unanswered and justice would be done for the dead garda, his bereaved family, and the force as a whole.

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