A garda murdered: Let’s end this legacy of evil and delusion

THE murder of Garda Tony Golden in Co Louth on Sunday night is in the first instance a tragedy and an outrage. In the second it is an attack on the integrity of this State, our democracy and the repeated and determined rejection of violence expressed by the vast majority of people on this island.

Garda Golden’s casual, unplanned murder is another heartbreaking example of the lethal legacy of bitterness and delusion used to enlist and corrupt young men and women in an evil exercise — the pursuit of minority political ambitions through violence.

Adrian Crevan Mackin, 24, who was charged with membership of an illegal organisation in January, shot Garda Golden, who, like most gardaí, was unarmed, when he escorted Mackin’s partner to a house in Omeath. Mackin shot his partner and then himself.