Olivia Kelly and Mark Brennock detail the investigations and inquiries into Abbeylara that concluded with the publication of yesterday's report Abbeylara investigations.
Just days after his death in April 2000, John Carthy's sister Marie and mother Rose called for an independent inquiry into the shooting.
Yesterday, more than six years later, the result of such an inquiry was finally published.
In the interim came an internal Garda inquiry which only added to the controversy. Then there was an unsuccessful attempt by the Oireachtas to hold an inquiry, only for it to be told by the Supreme Court that it could not conduct it in the way it intended.
Amid public disquiet over the killing of John Carthy, an internal Garda inquiry headed by then Chief Supt Adrian Culligan was first begun. It took just nine weeks to complete its investigation, but publication was withheld until the resumption of the Dáil in October 2000.
Before it was published, the DPP, who was already in possession of the report, said no Garda prosecutions should result from the shooting. In October the report was published and it broadly exonerated gardaí. It concluded that they had no alternative but to discharge their weapons and acted entirely within the law. The Garda report devoted 18 pages to a history of erratic and sometimes threatening behaviour by John Carthy.
The Oireachtas Justice Committee, which published the internal Garda report, decided that the matter should be examined in public. An Oireachtas sub-committee was formed and began hearings on April 25th, 2001, just over a year after Mr Carthy's death.
From its opening day in April 2001, the committee was challenged by John Rogers SC on behalf of a number of gardaí and warned that it was not for politicians to decide the culpability of members of the force. Any further investigation should be conducted by an independent investigator, not by politicians, Mr Rogers said.
Gardaí sought to be exempted from giving evidence and were eventually given leave to challenge the status of the Oireachtas inquiry in the High Court. That case got under way in July 2001.
The gardaí won in the High Court and in April 2002 the Supreme Court upheld that decision. It ruled that the Abbeylara inquiry sub-committee of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights did not have the right to conduct sworn inquiries that could make findings that could impugn the good name and reputation of citizens.
The then minister for justice, John O'Donoghue, had initially opposed the establishment of a public inquiry, but after the collapse of the Dáil sub-committee inquiry, he accepted the need for one. He set up the inquiry in July 2002 in the wake of resolutions of the Dáil and Seanad on April 17th and 18th, 2002.
Its terms of reference required it to inquire into "the facts and circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of John Carthy at Abbeylara, Co Longford, on 20 April 2000".
In July it was announced that Mr Justice Robert Barr, a retired judge of the High Court, would chair the tribunal of inquiry. Mr Justice Barr formally opened the tribunal in January 2003. Public hearings began on February 12th, 2003, in Longford before moving to Dublin on March 30th.
The tribunal was due to report to the Oireachtas "at the earliest possible date consistent with a fair examination of the matters referred to it".
Its hearings were completed on December 7th, 2004, after it took evidence from 169 witnesses. Mr Justice Barr had initially intended to present his report to the Oireachtas by June 2005.
The judge said yesterday that he had realised soon after the hearings had ended that it would take considerably longer, perhaps a year. He had intended to produce the report last Easter, but ill-health had resulted in his stopping work for a six-week period. A problem with the printing process was the final factor that delayed publication until yesterday, he said.