‘I was hoping these dark days were over’
It was more than 17 years ago when Ben O’Sullivan and colleague Jerry McCabe were shot by the IRA with an AK47 assault rifle during a robbery in Adare, Co Limerick.
Like Adrian, they were given no chance and no opportunity to defend themselves.
Jerry McCabe died as he sat in the unmarked Garda car. Ben O’Sullivan was seriously injured, but survived. Last Monday, he visited Henry Street Garda Station to sign the book of condolences. He struggled with emotions and spoke to the media, his voice low, broken and shaky: “When I came in, sorry, when I came in the door there and saw Jerry’s bust right in front of me, with you people around, it was history repeating itself.
“Forgive me for being a bit tear-jerked but there are more images here than I had foreseen.”
He stood beside the bronze bust and plaque of Jeremiah McCabe.
On a table was a framed photograph of Adrian Donohoe — the one pictured in many newspapers. The photograph will sink into our collective consciousness — that of the 41-year-old dad-of-two chatting with a bunch of young kids, similar in age to the under 7 team he coached in Lordship, Co Louth.
“This is as sad a day I have spent since poor Jerry passed away,” said Ben.
“No words would adequately condemn this barbaric crime. I was hoping these dark days were over.”
But last Friday, they came back with a vengeance, turning the lives of so many people upside down. And because Adrian was a member of so many families, ripples of pain and grief have been sent across the country, swollen by the savagery and senselessness of the murder.
Adrian’s wife, Caroline, herself a garda and also stationed in Dundalk, has had her life ripped apart, never to be the same again. Their two children, seven-year- old Amy and six-year-old Niall, have been robbed of their father.
Adrian will never again join them for their annual summer holidays in Caroline’s home town of Kilkee, Co Clare, to run along the beach with them and spend time with Caroline’s parents.
Adrian will not be there to see his children grow up, move into secondary school, do their Leaving Cert, go to college, fall in love, marry and start their own families.
His parents had to travel down from Kilnaleck, Co Cavan, and do what no parent should ever have to do — bury their own child.
His brothers, Colm and Martin, both gardaí, one serving in Swords, north Dublin, the other serving in Navan, Co Meath, will somehow have to live with the brutal murder of a brother and a colleague.
Then there are the thousands of people Adrian touched through his life in the GAA, both in Kilnaleck and St Patrick’s in Lordship.
They will be left with a void in their lives, not least the six-year-olds he trained, for whom he was described as a “role model”.
And the ripples continue. Caroline’s twin brother Derek Deloughery, is a garda sergeant based in Limerick. That’s six counties — Louth, Cavan, Clare, Dublin, Meath and Limerick — directly affected.
But as images yesterday showed, thousands of gardaí and ordinary people from all over the country descended to Lordship. It was a show of solidarity to the family and resolve against the killers.
And the ruptures don’t end there. There’s Adrian’s partner, Det Gda Joe Ryan, who was driving their car and witnessed the murder. He will walk the road Ben O’Sullivan is still on.
There is the detective who was supposed to be doing the shift that night and who Adrian agreed to swap with.
The tragedy has brought home the risks gardaí face every day they walk out the door, leaving behind loved ones who can’t relax until they hear the key in the door.
We, as a society, are only beginning to understand what has happened, what it means and how we should respond.
On that long journey, we must keep saying Adrian Donohoe’s name and keep talking about the type of man — and garda — he was.
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