Union demands inquiry into murder of garda

A senior Garda union today backed calls for an independent public inquiry into the murder of the first officer to die in the Republic during the Troubles.

Garda Richard Fallon, 43 was shot twice by republican splinter group Saor Eire during an armed bank robbery on Dublin’s Arran Quay in 1970.

He later became the first member of the force to be posthumously awarded the Scott Gold Medal for bravery in the line of duty.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) today agreed to write to the Justice Minister in support of the Fallon family’s call for a public inquiry into the unsolved murder.

However the union did not comment on the Fallon family’s allegations of a Government cover-up following the incident.

Confirming the AGSI correspondence to the Justice Minister, Garda Fallon’s youngest son Finian said today: “I believe that this is an extraordinary development in this long-running saga concerning the circumstances surrounding the murder of my father.

“I believe that something untoward went on and the Irish Government is hiding the truth to this day.”

A month after Garda Fallon’s murder, Taoiseach Jack Lynch sacked Finance Minister Charles Haughey and Agriculture Minister Neil Blaney over allegations of gunrunning for the Provisional IRA.

Local Government Minister Kevin Boland later resigned in sympathy with his colleagues.

The ministers were later acquitted.

Three activists of the now-defunct Saor Eire organisation went on trial for the murder but were later acquitted.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell said last year that the murder was fully investigated by the Garda at the time and that he was unconvinced that any further practical steps were open to him.

Garda Richard Fallon’s brother, Martin was at the centre of recent media allegations that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern carried a briefcase of cash on a flight to Manchester while Finance Minister in the early 1990s. He was Mr Ahern’s ministerial driver at the time.

Ann McCabe, the widow of Garda Jerry McCabe who was killed by the IRA in 1996, also supports the Fallon family in its call for a public inquiry.

“The family has been a long time looking for answers and any law-abiding citizen has a right to the truth,” she said last January.

Finian Fallon added today: “It is time that the Fianna Fáil-led Government showed a commitment to the kind of governance that it continuously demands of UK authorities and agrees to hold a public inquiry into this scandal.”

Mr Fallon and Mrs McCabe are both members of the Garda Survivors’ Support Association, which was formed in 2005 by relatives of gardai killed on duty.

Garda Fallon was responding to an alarm at the Royal Bank on April 3, 1970 when he was shot in the shoulder and neck as he tried to apprehend one of the armed raiders.

The capital murder investigation remains open under the authority of an Assistant Garda Commissioner.