McCabe family hits out at Taoiseach

The family of slaughtered Detective Garda Jerry McCabe clashed with the Dublin Government today after Irish premier Bertie Ahern warned no deal on the Northern Ireland peace process would be secured unless his IRA killers were freed.

The family of slaughtered Detective Garda Jerry McCabe clashed with the Government today after Taoiseach Bertie Ahern warned no deal on the Northern Ireland peace process would be secured unless his IRA killers were freed.

The gang of four will be released from prison if DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams can reach agreement on the revival of the North’s political institutions.

Det Garda McCabe’s widow, Anne McCabe, questioned whether the IRA had more power then the Government over plans to free her husband’s killers.

“Who is running our Government – Sinn Féin, the IRA, or Bertie Ahern?” she asked.

She said she was totally devastated that the IRA’s four-man gang could be released, stressing she had written assurances from the Government that the jail gates would not be thrown open.

Pearse McAuley, Jeremiah Sheehy, Kevin Walsh and Michael O’Neill are serving between 11 and 14 years for the manslaughter of the 52-year-old detective, gunned down in a hail of bullets in the botched robbery attempt of a post office van in Adare in Co Limerick in June 1996.

“They committed a criminal act, the most heinous crime anyone could commit,” Mrs McCabe said.

“I don’t want to go down in history for stalling the peace process. I’m just very disappointed, but I hope that they won’t come under the Good Friday Agreement and they will serve their sentence.”

The planned release would be a slap in the face for An Garda Siochana, she added.

Mr Ahern told the Dáil it had been made clear in negotiations that if the issue was not dealt with there would be no agreement on the restoration of the power sharing institutions.

“This is a request put by one of the parties, the obvious party, and it was put in that way,” he said.

“The issue is this: If I want, if the Government wants, and if we all want a comprehensive deal, there are many aspects of that deal, many aspects that affect many people which we have to deal with.”

Mr Ahern admitted it was a “highly sensitive” issue which he would rather not deal with.

But he said the men were the only remaining prisoners in this capacity left on the island.

“If we want a deal, a comprehensive deal, this is one issue we have to deal with,” he said. “And before that happens we will talk to the Garda Representative Association and the families to explain our position.”

Pat Carney, brother-in-law of the late detective, accused the Government of breaking its promise to keep the killers behind bars for life and claimed the family, the public and even the word of cabinet ministers was being ignored.

He said the McCabe family were given assurances on two separate occasions that the release of the killers would not be considered.

“We had complete faith in the Government in what they told us verbally and in writing,” he said.

“It would be a complete blow to the morale of the Gardaí if this happens.”

Mr Carney said it was hypocritical for the Government to call on new garda recruits to implement the law without fear or favour when they were giving favours to the killers of Jerry McCabe.

“We trusted Bertie Ahern, we trusted his Government and we trusted the word that the two ministers for justice gave us,” he said.

The IRA initially denied involvement, but Sinn Féin has consistently called for the men to be released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, a position previously rejected by the Government.

Trevor Sargent, Green Party leader, demanded Mr Ahern apologise for the “callous insensitivity” of not consulting with the families of both Det Garda McCabe and Det Garda Ben O’Sullivan who was seriously wounded in the attack.

He said the U-turn may be a breach of legal contract given that a “no early release” commitment was made by two successive Ministers for Justice.

Unionist parties in Northern Ireland are also at loggerheads over the future of Garda McCabe’s killers.

Senior Ulster Unionist Sir Reg Empey called on the DUP to state if the release would or would not form part of a comprehensive deal.

“The DUP gave an assurance to the people of Northern Ireland that the concessions had come to an end,” the East Belfast MLA said.

“They told people in their manifesto that they didn’t want amnesties for terrorists.”

But Democratic Unionist deputy leader Peter Robinson criticised the move, insisting it was a part of deal struck last year when the Ulster Unionists were a main player in negotiations.

“We continue to oppose the early release of terrorist prisoners today,” he said. “As early as May of this year we utterly condemned this decision and its origins.

“We will not be held responsible for the results of a weak and deceitful Ulster Unionist Party.”