Ferris defends freedom run

SINN FÉIN’s Martin Ferris defended his role in spiriting away two of the gang who killed Detective Jerry McCabe, as they were released from prison yesterday, and said he did not want to add to the pain of the dead man’s family.

When repeatedly asked to publicly condemn the McCabe killing, the Kerry North TD adamantly refused to do so and said he concurred with remarks made by Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, who said the organisation had already apologised for the killing and welcomed the men’s release.

“In a public statement some years ago the IRA members convicted in relation to Jerry McCabe’s death and the wounding of Garda Ben O’Sullivan, expressed their deep regret and apologised for the ‘hurt and grief we have caused to their families’,” Mr Adams said. The decision to keep the released prisoners away from the media glare was to prevent adding to the pain of the McCabe family, Mr Ferris said in the course of an interview with Eamon Keane on Newstalk radio.