The Barr report points the finger at Garda negligence and ineptitude, writes Miriam Lord.
"Run for cover when the shooting stops."
Rookie cops won't find this unusual guideline in their Templemore training manual, but if they are good young officers and keen to follow the example set by their Garda superiors, it's just a simple case of look and learn.
And so the mindset remains: close ranks, admit to nothing and back up your own because you never know when you might need them. Broach no criticism from any quarter outside the force. They don't understand.
Once John Carthy was brought down outside his home by that fourth Garda bullet, there should have been no further need for the gardaí to seek cover. But as soon as questions were asked about what happened on that day in Holy Week, April 2000, the force went into protection mode.
For the family of this troubled but gentle man, it seemed the answers to those questions would never come.
The unspoken Garda view would have been that John Carthy had forfeited the right to those answers on the day he holed up in his house with a shotgun and threatened to shoot anyone who came near.
Who among us is brave enough to put our lives on the line in order to protect others? As was pointed out after the death of John Carthy, and was still being said by senior Garda officers yesterday in the wake of the publication of the Barr report, no garda ever goes out with the intention of killing somebody.
No right-thinking person would ever disagree with that.
Marie Carthy knows that the man who shot her brother didn't want to kill him.
Yesterday, during a brief press conference to outline her family's initial response to the report, she said she understood that the officer who fired the fatal bullet was a family man, doing his job, who had to live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life.
But for the Carthy family, good intentions are not enough to mitigate for the death of John. Since his death, they have not stopped asking why gardaí took such drastic measures to end the Abbeylara siege.
Answers - when they came, and often they didn't - were less than satisfactory.
Six years they waited, but it was worth it in the end.
In essence, Mr Justice Robert Barr says John Carthy's death should never have happened. It happened because of Garda negligence and ineptitude.
At long last, the Carthy family can say they are vindicated, but Marie Carthy never once spoke of vindication yesterday. There was no sense of triumph, just a feeling of relief.
She looked a different woman to the media-shy, self-conscious person who began all those years ago to speak up for her dead brother. A PR firm handled the press conference in Buswells Hotel, and Ms Carthy walked confidently to the top table as photographers surrounded her.
Wearing a smart cream trouser suit with an elegant black top and high-heeled sandals, she could have been a savvy politician on her way to address a gathering of potentially useful journalists.
She reminded everyone how John was "a beloved son, brother, nephew, cousin, neighbour and friend". He will be remembered as "a great character" with a sense of humour, who loved sport and was intelligent, gentle and hard-working.
"To this day, my family believe there was no just cause to fatally shoot John," she said, welcoming the publication of the report.
Then she took some questions from the floor, composed and cautious, without a trace of bitterness or anger.
Most of the words yesterday came from those who have most to lose. Marie Carthy has lost her brother. All the talking and excuses in the world won't bring him back.