Det Garda Ben O'Sullivan, who was seriously injured by the gang which murdered Det Garda Jerry McCabe in Limerick last month, yesterday helped to launch a police study scheme named after his late colleague.
At a ceremony in the US ambassador's residence in Dublin, the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, and the US ambassador, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith, announced the programme along with the Deputy Garda Commissioner, Mr P.J. Moran. Det Garda O'Sullivan said the scheme was "a lovely tribute to Jerry".
Under the McCabe Fellowship Programme, gardai will be selected to study policing at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, and some New York police officers will study here. The initial cost will be between £10,000 and £30,000.
However, the president of John Jay College, Dr Gerry Lynch, said funding for the scheme was not yet in place. Some potential backers had been approached and an account had been opened at AIB in Dame Street Dublin, for contributions.
Det Garda O'Sullivan said his right shoulder was his most serious injury, but his medical team had been "very happy with my recovery". He could not go into detail about what happened in Adare on June 7th, as he is a witness of events which will be before the courts. It had been a "very traumatic" day.
"It's a memory I will not forget," he said. "It's something that Jerry McCabe would never have foreseen. Like myself he was a garda doing an ordinary day's work." Det Garda McCabe was a close friend and a man very like himself. "He was myself, if you want to put it that way," he said. "He was a true loyal comrade.
Asked if he had any particular happy memories of Det Garda McCabe he said. "Any day was with Jerry was a happy one."
It was suggested that they had been considering retirement before the shooting. "We hadn't retired yet," he said. "There were rumours of people writing their memoirs, but we hadn't indicated to our authorities that we were going to retire." He added that whether he would now return to work would depend on his medical condition.
Det Garda O'Sullivan paid tribute to the medical teams who had taken care of him at St Nessan's Orthopaedic Hospital at Croom, Co Limerick, and Belfast City Hospital, and thanked the public who had shown support by sending flowers and letters. He attends hospital as an outpatient almost daily and has been making a good recovery. He had been "absolutely shocked" by the murder of Veronica Guerin.
Members of Det Garda O'Sullivan's family were at the scholarship launch as was Mrs Anne McCabe, widow of Det Garda McCabe.