GARDAI have made four arrests in Monaghan and Limerick in an extensive security follow up after the killing of Det Garda Jerry McCabe during the attempted robbery of a post office cash delivery lorry in Adare, Co Limerick.
A man originally from the Border area, who has been diving in Limerick, was arrested with a woman companion in Co Monaghan yesterday afternoon. Both were being questioned last night.
Gardai believe the man arrested in Monaghan is a member of the IRA unit suspected of carrying out yesterday's killing.
Two women were later arrested in the Limerick area. Both were detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and were being held in Limerick Garda stations.
From early yesterday gardai were convinced that the killing of Det Garda McCabe was the work of the IRA, despite denials by the organisation.
Hundreds of gardai with armed support were last night searching for the other members of the gang, who are thought to have gone into hiding in the south west region. Several houses of IRA members in the Limerick, "north west Cork and north Kerry areas were searched, but no other arrests were made.
The second officer injured in the raid at Adare, Det Garda Ben O'Sullivan, is recovering from gunshot wounds to the neck and shoulder in Limerick Regional Hospital.
Garda McCabe (52), a married man with five children, died at the scene of the shooting. Two of his children had been due to sit Leaving and Junior Certificate examinations in Limerick yesterday.
Gardai in Limerick said that four or five men were involved in the raid. They used a stolen Mitsubishi Pajero jeep to ram the Garda car and another stolen vehicle to make their escape.
The driver of the post office cash lorry, Mr Willie Jackson, said that the gang started shooting through the windows of the Garda car at the two plainclothes officers. "One of the gang first. fired into the driver's position and one of the three ran around and fired through the other window, hitting the passenger, they didn't give them a chance.
The President, Mrs Robinson, the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, and the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, all extended their deepest sympathy to the families and relatives of the detectives. Mr Spring described the shooting as a "shocking and cowardly act".
The president of Sinn Fein, Mr Gerry Adams, declined to take questions from the media when be arrived at the Ulster Hall in Belfast last night for a rally to. celebrate his party's electoral successes.
The guns used by the gang were Kalashnikov AK47 automatic assault rifles, a weapon exclusively used by the IRA. Two incendiary bombs, of the type used by the IRA, were found in the two vehicles abandoned by the killers.
Gardai believe that the gang may have panicked after opening fire on the two gardai, abandoning the jeep and leaving the estimated £50,000 cash delivery for the post office intact in the delivery lorry.
The killers' escape car, a Mitsubishi Lancer, was abandoned six miles from Adare in a wooded area near Bruff. Gardai confirmed last night that the jeep which was used to ram the Garda car was stolen on May 31st at Butterfield Park in Rathfarnham, Dublin. The Mitsubishi Lancer, which the gunmen used to make their escape, was stolen on Wednesday from Ailesbury Road in Dublin.
Garda McCabe is the 13th garda to be killed on duty since 1970 and the first to die since 1985. Republican paramilitaries have killed 12 of these 13 gardai.