A stolen sports Mazda hurtled into a patrol car instantly killing Gardas Tony Tighe and Mick Padden. The driver was 16, with a string of convictions. The incident has stunned the public and cast a grim mood over a frustrated force, writes Joe Humphries
Garda Tony Tighe should have been at Lansdowne Road last Wednesday. He never missed a soccer or rugby international, according to his colleagues, not as a spectator but as a squad car driver outside the gates. "It was always difficult to get people for the matches," said one colleague. "But Tony would always volunteer. He was that kind of guy - very reliable, very considerate." Instead, last Wednesday, Garda Tighe was buried in Newlands Cemetery, Dublin, his body having been carried to his grave flanked by members of C unit, Donnybrook.
They call themselves a family. And within it, as Garda Lorna Garland - one of the 18-strong unit - remarked in a moving tribute at his funeral Mass: "Tony was our adopted dad."
Some 32 years with the force, all of them spent in Donnybrook, Garda Tighe used to train new recruits in what was affectionately known as "Tony's car".
"He was a role model," said one recent graduate from Templemore. "If we had 10,000 guards like him we'd have a magnificent force." A father of four, he brought his paternal instincts to his workplace, and many of his pupils recalled how protective of them he was. "Any small problems we had on home-buying, relationships, whatever, we would go to Tony," said one.
Among his newest pupils was Garda Mick Padden, whose first posting, after graduation from the Garda Training College 15 months ago, was to the south Dublin unit. An only child, whose late father served in the force, Garda Padden had in a short space of time become a respected and popular member of his newly-adopted family. "He was always in good spirits," said one colleague. "If he wasn't laughing and joking, he'd be talking about Mayo football." By all accounts, last Sunday morning was no different. When Garda Padden came on duty at 6 a.m., he was said to be bantering with colleagues about golf, soccer and his beloved Mayo, who were playing a big game later that day. Garda Tighe, as was his wont, was enjoying a cup of tea while doing some paperwork. The two men received a hand-over briefing from the unit whose shift was ending.
Then they set off on their first patrol of the day.
As Garda Garland recalled, Garda Tighe's habit was to journey through Irishtown on his early-morning circuit, where on Pigeon House Road he'd watch the boats docking in Dublin Harbour. It was one of his few routines of the day - another being a house call, as soon as he clocked off, to his elderly mother, Patricia, in Ranelagh.
That morning was different, however. At 6.21 a.m. a call came through to say a stolen sports car was travelling at high speed on the N11 towards the city; 20 minutes earlier, a group of youths had broken into an apartment at Bullock Harbour, Dalkey, where they found the keys of a black, two-seater Mazda.
Garda Tighe's was the first of two Donnybrook squad cars to divert to the scene. A third car from Blackrock Station made its way to White's Cross where it helped to direct other vehicles off the road, as is the practice when so-called "joyriding" incidents occur.
At least one motorist came close to death at this point when the Mazda shot between two cars being manoeuvred out of harm's way. A side mirror was torn off one of the vehicles.
A few junctions further down the dual carriageway, Gardas Tighe and Padden spotted two city-bound cars stopped at traffic lights near the Radisson Hotel. Recognising the danger, with a speeding vehicle heading in their direction, Garda Tighe circled the squad car to alert the two drivers.
As it pulled alongside them, the Mazda - travelling in the bus lane at an estimated 120 m.p.h. - careered into its path.
Gardaí said the stolen car must have been out of control at that speed. A skid-mark of seven feet indicated its driver only saw the squad car, which had stopped in the bus lane, at the last moment.
Both Garda Tighe and Garda Padden were killed instantly.
Aged 53, Garda Tighe, had been looking forward to retiring shortly. As his children had all reached adulthood, he had begun to enjoy more leisure time, and had recently gone on a number of holidays with his wife, Irene.
Garda Padden had his ambitions too, and spoke of a longing to move back to the west, where he hoped to further his policing career.
An extraordinary expression of grief - and anger - followed their deaths. People across the State marked the loss with flowers, words of sympathy, and moments of silence on roadsides and streets where the hearses passed by.
It was not the first time gardai died in the course of duty. In the past four years, 10 gardai have been killed in traffic incidents alone.
But there was something particularly shocking about last Sunday's tragedy. And, undoubtedly, part of it extended from the fact the driver of the Mazda was 16 years old. A boy, in other words. But a boy, who had at that young age 24 prior convictions.
One felt the public was not just mourning the death of two policemen but the passing of an era when such an incident was almost unthinkable.
Garda Tighe's son, Colum, who had three weeks earlier graduated from Templemore, was one of the first people on the scene. His shift at Kilmainham Station had started at the same time as his father's.
A few hours later, the Garda chaplain, Father Joe Kennedy, gathered with members of Unit C in an upper room of Donnybrook Garda Station, where they celebrated Mass for their fallen colleagues. By 10.50 a.m., the first names were being signed in a book of condolences at Donnybrook Station. Well-wishers began calling to express sympathy and support in such numbers that it took three gardaí to keep the phones manned. Three days later, there were more than 5,000 entries in two books of condolence, a second one having been opened to ease the queues. Entire classrooms from nearby schools such as St Conleths and St Terisians came to pay their respects. Others came representing businesses, sports clubs, community groups. Most took the time to make a personal comment, if only "deepest sympathy", or just "thank you". From one man: "For protecting and caring us, you are true heroes. We can never show our gratitude." From the daughter of a retired garda and sister of a current member of the force: "May God protect all members of the Garda Síochána always." From a colleague at Blackrock Station: "Enjoyed every day working with both of ye." At the station gates outside, and at the scene of the incident, people continued to lay flowers, and pause in silent contemplation, even as it rained.
SHOCK-WAVES also were reverberating around Leinster House. On Monday, Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Alan Shatter, was likening Dublin to "Dodge city of the Wild West". By mid-week, the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, was announcing extra prison places for juvenile offenders. And it is unlikely to stop there.
Ironically, all the pre-election talk until then had been about reform of the Garda in the wake of the Abbeylara and McBrearty scandals. Suddenly, the issues are instead garda resources and court reform.
"We need an awful lot more support from the courts," said George Maybury, general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors. Speaking of juvenile crime in general, he said the force was not seeking to influence judges but "we do need to have a judiciary that will put off the streets these young people who are perpetrating quite a lot of offences, youngsters who are effectively out of control. There is a duty on the courts to protect us, and to protect society, and to give them stiff sentences. And this isn't happening in quite a number of cases."
Senior gardaí also say the Garda's vehicle fleet needs to be upgraded and that the routine Garda helicopter patrols should be extended to nights and weekends, with new measures specifically aimed at controlling "joyriding". One further issue, high- lighted by Maybury, is the omission of a Garda presence from a review of the courts system recently initiated by the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Ronan Keane.
"It struck us as very ironic that neither Garda management nor associations, as major stakeholders, were represented on this body," he said.
A SENSE of frustration with the judiciary was shared this week by some colleagues of Gardas Tighe and Padden. Just as many of them spoke of the need for improved social services, and particularly more early- intervention programmes for out-of-control youths.
"Relying on us to deal with these kids is like locking the door when the horse has bolted," said one. "You have to start with them much earlier. I think a lot of it comes down to a bad environment, and poor role models. It's hard to blame some of them." And that comment came from a garda who himself suffered a near-fatal stabbing from a youth. One wonders would any citizen be as forgiving.
Another colleague, a team-mate of Garda Padden's on the E-Division gaelic football team, added: "Anger doesn't come into it. You can make all the excuses you like but it won't bring Mick and Tony back."
Whether or not some good will come of the sacrifice made by Gardas Tighe and Padden time will tell. "You will not be forgotten," read many a wreath card at their funerals, and it's a phrase that cries out for repeating. So too does a comment by Father Kennedy on the "two brave men" and their colleagues, who daily risk their lives for others: "Very often, we take them for granted."