McCabe killers - Early release is a deal worth doing

DOUBTLESS, the public will sympathise, and rightly so, with the widow of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe over the Government’s plan to give her husband’s killers early release from jail.

The anguish, disappointment and pain of the McCabe family, and the outrage of gardaí, are palpable.

But with his killers’ impending release now an integral part of a comprehensive deal on the North, it is readily understandable why the Taoiseach is actively pursuing that option despite the sensitivity of the issue.

Sinn Féin’s role in this tragic affair has been typically hypocritical.

Having first denied IRA involvement in the killing, the republican movement went on to claim the criminal thugs as their own.

The death of Gerry McCabe was an incalculable loss for his family.

But the prospect of lasting peace, if IRA paramilitary activity were to end once and for all, is too important a prize for the people of Ireland - North and South - to forfeit.