Robbery which led to McCabe killing was to finance house
Kevin Walsh, who shot dead Detective Garda McCabe, organised the armed hold up of a post office van to raise money for a huge bungalow he was building in nearby Patrickswell.
The building has yet to be completed and appeared unoccupied yesterday.
Walsh needed cash to pay for materials to complete work on the site of the house at Lurriga, just outside Patrickswell, by the time of the Adare attack.
Walsh, the man who opened fire on Det Garda McCabe and Det Garda Ben O’Sullivan with a powerful Kalashnikov assault rifle, had been working on the bungalow with other known IRA members in the months leading up to the robbery on June 7, 1996.
After the botched robbery, the IRA said it had not been sanctioned by their command structure.
Walsh was building the 2,500 sq ft bungalow adjacent to his family home.
A garda source told the Irish Examiner: “Walsh needed money to complete the bungalow and the proceeds of the Adare robbery were to go towards the house.”
Walsh, now aged 49, lived at Lisheen Park in Patrickswell with his wife and two children. With remission, he will be due out of Castlerea prison in about three years.
Another member of the gang, Michael O’Neill, also from Lisheen Park, will be released in less than two years.
Pearse McCauley, from Strabane, will serve the same time as Walsh — 14 years before remission.
Jeremiah Sheehy, from Rathkeale, got 12 years and will serve nine, leaving him eligible for release in two years’ time.
Two members of the six-man gang fled the country in the immediate aftermath of the killing of Det Garda McCabe.
One of the men, from the Shannon area, is now resident in Spain while a Cork man is believed to be teaching in Latin America.
Meanwhile, Senator John Minihan (PDs) called on Sinn Féin to name the “authorised officer” who sanctioned the raid.
He said the RTÉ True Lives programme had exposed Sinn Féin’s disregard for institutions of the Irish State and its servants.
“I have always argued that the killing of Jerry McCabe was intentional, calculated and cold-blooded. The programme re-enforced my belief,” he said.
Mr Minihan said that Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, having first denied any IRA involvement, then went on to state that the killing was wrong and that it had been authorised at a low level.
“If Mr Adams believes the killing was wrong he has an obligation to name that ‘authorised officer’,” Mr Minihan said.
