It was chilling to know the victims so well
PEOPLE will have different memories of June 7, 1996, the day the IRA fatally shot Detective Garda Jerry McCabe in Adare.
Detective Garda Ben O’Sullivan survived multiple bullet wounds from the Kalashnikov assault rifle that gang leader Kevin Walsh used to fire on the gardaí.
My memories of that fine summer day will be the same as most who knew Jerry and count themselves privileged to be a friend of Ben.
Anger, revulsion and horror at what the IRA did were the overriding emotions.
At the time I was deputy editor/news editor of the Limerick Leader.
Before I left home for work that Friday morning, I got a call at around 7.40am saying two gardaí had been shot in Adare. One was dead.
As I rushed into the office, the first colleague I met was Eugene Phelan, who confirmed McCabe and O’Sullivan had been shot.
Journalists in the Leader at those times had met with Jerry and Ben many times. John Brennan’s pub was the place we went for morning coffee at 11am. It was located in Catherine Street, up the lane from the rear of the Leader building.
Jerry and Ben used to go into a snug area on the right of the entrance.
They would have completed their morning run to West Limerick as armed escort for a post office lorry with pension money.
There was always a bit of chat and banter between the journalists and the two Special Branch men, who carried a metallic case, containing their Uzi submachine guns.
But on that June 7, Henry Street Garda Station confirmed one garda was dead and another seriously injured with multiple bullet wounds.
The biggest murder hunt in the history of the state was underway, a stones throw from our news room. It was a chilling feeling — we knew the victims so well.
