A Garda union today backed calls for an independent public inquiry into the murder of the first officer to die in Ireland during the Troubles.

Garda Fallon’s family and the public have been denied access to the files on his murder.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors is supporting a call for a full inquiry into matters relating to the murder of Garda Richard Fallon on April 3, 1970.

A senior Garda union today backed calls for an independent public inquiry into the murder of the first officer to die in the Republic during the Troubles.

Calls for a public inquiry into the first garda officer killed in the Troubles were today backed by the widow of murdered garda Jerry McCabe.

SENIOR gardaí backed a proposal to run a reward for information programme through national newspapers but the Chief State Solicitor shot it down.

THE BBC television series Facing the Truth yet again threw into stark relief the inability of our government and media in Southern Ireland to face up to and deal with the issues and resonances of the troubles in the Republic.

THE reported comment by Ms Monica Duffy-Campbell (whose husband Tom was murdered in the 1972 Dublin bombing) that the British and Irish governments engaged in “collusion” concerning the bombings comes as no surprise to the family of Garda Richard Fallon.

AS a representative of the surviving children of Garda Richard Fallon, who was murdered on Arran Quay on April 3 1970, I am delighted to see that a commission of investigation is to be established by the Government.

ALLEGATIONS relating to the fatal shooting of the first garda killed during the Northern Troubles raise the spectre of possible collusion by the State in terrorist activities as far back as the early ’70s.