Locals come out to honour the memory of Garda Jerry McCabe in the village of the crooked cross

Last Monday, Adare, Co Limerick, remembered Jerry McCabe on the 20th anniversary of the IRA attack which claimed his life near the village post office. Yesterday, his own people and hundreds of others gathered in Ballylongford, Co Kerry, where he was brought up to pay their tribute.

A plaque was unveiled on the building in Bridge St, where his parents Johnny and Lizze ran a grocery and hardware business and brought up their six children — Maria, Eileen, Jerry, Nuala, Mike, and Kay.

Local sculptor Paddy Fitzell carved the plaque out of black granite with an inscription from the great poet Brendan Kennelly also a son of Ballylongford with the line ‘the crooked cross always in his heart’.