Cowen awaits report on SF/McCabe killers photo

Brian Cowen has refused to comment on the photograph of Sinn Féin TDs with the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe that appeared in An Phoblacht.

The Foreign Affairs Minister said he would not comment until he received a report on the matter.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams today defended the campaign by members of his party in the Dáil for the release of the garda’s killers.

The West Belfast MP described as “opportunistic” criticism of the photograph.

The photograph was reproduced in national newspapers here.

Mr Adams said today: “The photograph was published in An Phoblacht a few weeks ago and it only came into public controversy when they were published in a Sunday newspaper.

“Leaving that aside for one moment, there is a campaign for the release of those prisoners and clearly under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement they should be released.

“There is a campaign against the release of those prisoners and every issue will be seized upon and I think it is very, very distressing for the McCabe family.

“It is certainly not an issue that we wish to be dragged into every second or third week.

“I was one of the people who negotiated for the release of prisoners. I did not just negotiate for the release of republican prisoners.

“I negotiated also for the release of loyalist prisoners. I negotiated for the release of prisoners who killed family members, party members, neighbours, friends.

“Part of that was that although these men were not convicted at the time they were convicted because they were either supporters of or members of the IRA and they would be released.

“That’s the crux of the issue and this campaign for and against goes on and we will continue to have these issues seized upon, and some cases opportunistically seized upon in an attempt to beat up Sinn Féin.”

Detective Garda Jerry McCabe was gunned down during an attempted robbery of a village post office in Adare, Co Limerick in June 1996.

Pearse McAuley from Strabane, Co Tyrone and Kevin Walsh from Limerick were jailed for 14 years for the policeman’s manslaughter.

Jeremiah Sheehy and Michael O’Neill from Co Limerick are also serving sentences relating to the killing.

Mr McCabe’s widow Ann has condemned Sinn Féin’s TDs for posing with the prisoners in Castlerea jail.

She said: “I thought it was unusual to see that Dáil deputies would be allowed in to stand beside the convicted killers of my husband.

“I thought it was against the rules of the jail.”

Mrs McCabe also claimed today that she believed that despite Sinn Féin’s campaign for the prisoners’ swift release, they would serve their full time.

She said that she had received assurances from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s Government and previous governments that the men would serve their full sentences.

The publication of the photograph resulted in an apology from the Prison Service about any distress it may have caused.

Garda representatives have also branded the Sinn Féin photograph as insensitive.

Mr Adams said at Stormont: “Don’t underestimate that this is a big issue for republicans and particularly in the south (of Ireland).

“We have to manage that and we have to manage that by showing both in terms of the Good Friday Agreement and our own membership and the broad constituency that we are putting this issue to the two governments.

“It cannot be settled to the satisfaction of Jerry McCabe’s family given that man’s killing. It is just impossible and I have great compassion for them.

“I feel those who are jumping on the issue have their own agendas and those agendas are anti-Sinn Féin.”