‘For me, today is the same as 20 years ago’ says Jerry McCabe's widow

It was 6.55am, June 7, 1996, when Detective Garda Jerry McCabe and Detective Garda Ben O’Sullivan were targeted by an IRA gang as both officers provided an armed escort for a mail delivery van.

Det McCabe was killed instantly when a bullet from an AK47 machine gun severed his spine as he sat in their Ford Garda car. His partner, Det O’Sullivan, was shot 11 times, but miraculously survived.

At 6.55am yesterday, at a moving commemoration ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of her husband’s death, Ann McCabe, with her daughter Stacy, laid flowers outside Adare Garda Station, just yards from the location where Det McCabe was murdered in a hail of automatic gunfire.