State of grief
The clusters of mourners lining the funeral route from early morning had swollen into a throng of farewell engulfing the streets as Det Gda Donohoe’s cortege approached St Joseph’s Redemptorist Church with an honour guard of 2,500 of his comrades marching behind the hearse in dignified tribute.
The weight of the state occasion was never allowed to overwhelm the family’s individual sense of their own loss as the service remembered Det Gda Donohoe as a father, husband, and son, as well as a slain protector of the people.
The altar gift of the football he and son Niall, six, would kick around, sat alongside the TV remote control his daughter Amy, seven, would hide from him so she could keep control of the channels, and the mobile phone she would wait for him to use to say goodnight when he was working late.
While President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Enda Kenny represented the State, it was the poignant presence of Ann McCabe, whose husband Jerry was the last garda to be murdered in the line of duty, nearly 17 years ago, that represented the never-ending pain of a tragedy such as this.
The service was also given an unexpected tingle of controversy as Fr Michael Cusack came close to preaching politics from the pulpit when he asked those present to reflect on the mass closure of Garda stations under way in an intervention which would, no doubt, have pleased the gardaí present as much as it must have made Mr Kenny and Justice Minister Alan Shatter uncomfortable.
The trappings of state slid away almost completely as the procession returned to the final resting place of Lordship, a sleepy hamlet of a few streets, all of which radiate out from its heart, the St Patrick’s GAA club where Det Gda Donohoe coached its younger members.
The cortege, which had no option but to pass the credit union murder site, stopped just past the gates of the GAA club, and Det Gda Donohoe’s coffin was eased out of the hearse and onto the shoulders of pallbearers as a lone green and white St Patrick’s Club flag fluttered in the icy breeze nearby. In all, seven sets of Det Gda Donohoe’s friends, relatives, and colleagues bore the weight of his coffin as it was carried to the cemetery.
The hillside graveyard lay just half a mile from the GAA club, but the silent procession took more than half an hour to reach it.
It was as if everyone wanted to help Det Gda Donohoe on his last journey, but nobody was really ready to say goodbye.
Thousands of people lined the short route, GAA legend Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh among them, all closing in behind the funeral party as the coffin moved slowly forward.
As it approached the cemetery, hundreds of gardaí raised their hands in a farewell salute to their murdered colleague.
One elderly woman, unable to brave the cold, stood in her front doorway, clad in black, and blessed herself as the coffin was passed over to the final set of pallbearers, this time all in uniform, and the Garda band finally broke the long silence as the cortege turned left into the small graveyard as the strains of ‘Going Home’ rang out.
As is traditional, Det Gda Donohoe’s widow Caroline, herself a serving garda, was handed the Tricolour, now folded, that had adorned her husband’s coffin along with his cap and gloves.
Ms Donohoe held Amy and Niall’s hands tight as they moved forward.
She had told the children the night before the funeral: “Daddy is in heaven, there are two more stars in the sky tonight.”
Twilight was beginning to fall as the haunting lament of ‘The Last Post’ rose above the graveside and drifted out between the sombre magnificence of the Cooley Mountains and the still waters of Dundalk Bay below.
A garda standing by the hearse, its windows dominated by floral tributes declaring “Daddy, Son, Brother”, wept openly.
He was not the only one.
2500 off duty uniformed Gardai line up outside the funeral of murdered Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe. RIP. pic.twitter.com/kobBej2f
— Ben Sweeney (@BenSweeneyF1) January 30, 2013
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