Commissioner pays tribute to ‘heroic’ garda Tony Golden

Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan said people all over Ireland had gathered in Blackrock or watched the State funeral on television at home to “register a heroic death”.

“The pain and sympathy evoked by Tony’s death in the wider community has touched every one of us who works with and wears the blue uniform of An Garda Síochána,” she said.

“But the hero he became in death should not wipe from our memories the man he was in life. Above all Tony was a family man, a man living within a ring of love forged by himself and Nicola. The two of them had made several happy plans, and had hopes and dreams for their future together.

“It is achingly sad to know that those hopes and dreams can never happen as planned. Just as it is achingly sad to realise that Tony’s three beautiful children will need help to remember the best of what has been taken away from them.

“To remember being hefted on to the big shoulders of their daddy, to get the very best view. To remember the strong, sure hands of him, to remember the sound of his car arriving outside and the excitement of rushing to tell him all the things that were so important that happened that day.”

Crowds line the streets of Blackrock to watch the funeral on a large screen. Pic: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

Ms O’Sullivan said Mr Golden also belonged to the wider Garda family, and the force had long, proud memories “when it comes to our own”.

“We bring them with us on our journey, in the stories we tell in the dark interiors of patrol cars, when waiting for a kettle to boil in the station, when we are out on lonely checkpoints,” she said.

“We will tell stories about Tony Golden in the months and years to come and in those stories we will remember the totality of him.”

The Garda chief said: “He was a proud, loving family man. He was a garda who loved being a garda. He was a hero protecting a frightened woman and her father.

“He laid down his life doing what he had sworn to do. He had sworn to be a guardian of the peace.”

President Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald and her Stormont counterpart David Ford also attended the service.