Donohoe murder - Turn your outrage into firm resolve

Though yesterday’s funeral in Dundalk was tragic, most especially for Det Garda Adrian Donohoe’s widow Caroline, their son Niall — just six years of age — and daughter Amy — seven — we can all take some small crumb of comfort from the powerful reaction to his murder.

Last week’s wanton and casual killing provoked near universal outrage. It showed a society united, in a way it may not have been before, in opposition to violent criminals or violent republicans — or one masquerading as the other.

This may be of little immediate consolation to Adrian Donohoe’s heartbroken family, friends and colleagues, but if a comparison is made between the reaction, some of it deeply ambiguous, to the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe in Adare, in June 1996, then it is possible to say considerable progress has been made in this society on the question of violent republicanism, violent and organised crime and violence directed towards the gardaí. It is simply no longer acceptable.

Jerry McCabe was murdered by the IRA less than two years before the Good Friday Peace Agreement was signed and later endorsed by a 32-county vote, a vote that left no room for those who would pursue objectives, political or criminal, through violence. People like those callous thugs who murdered Adrian Donohoe.

The most striking manifestation of this change was the fact that Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams apologised in the Dáil on Tuesday to the family of Jerry McCabe, Garda Ben O’Sullivan and “to the families of other members of the State forces who were killed by republicans in the course of the conflict”.

It is ironic that this apology was provoked by another capital crime. That it came 17 years after the Adare murder which was carried out by an organisation Mr Adams has always denied being a member of provokes the a simple question — if Mr Adams’ denial is true, why is he apologising on their behalf?

The usual scepticism applicable to any Sinn Féin volte-face also suggests the apology was made because Sinn Féin had been outflanked by history and today’s events. Not to express regret in the Dáil over last week’s murder would have reminded us all of the path so recently travelled by Sinn Féin — and decades earlier by their Dáil colleagues — to power. Such an expression would have been almost impossible and profoundly hypocritical if the McCabe murder was not addressed.

The apology, if it can be judged on its own merits, is welcome. However, in another indication of the progress we have made since 1996, it is all but irrelevant to the events of recent days. The outrage freely expressed by the communities, the colleagues and the sports and social circles where Adrian Donohoe was known and fondly respected, the outrage expressed by the tens of thousands who did not know him, sends an unequivocal message to Government and our judiciary.

Government must provide resources — including a national DNA database — to defeat criminals and the judiciary must reflect the opprobrium expressed right across this island when they sentence anyone convicted of violent crime against any citizen and especially against those working to protect all citizens. If that happens then in 17 years’ time, when Amy and Niall Donohoe look back on their father’s death, they will know that his life and his death had a real impact on the society to which he dedicated his life.