Yesterday's raid in Co Wicklow comes nearly two years after a similar armed robbery on a An Post cash delivery van in which Det Garda Jerry McCabe was shot dead in Adare, Co Limerick. His colleague Det Garda Ben O'Sullivan was seriously injured but later recovered.
Garda McCabe was a married man with five children. Four or five men were involved in the armed raid in June 1996.
In September 1984, Garda Frank Hand (27) was shot dead at Drumcree, Co Meath, while escorting a cash delivery. Three IRA men were found guilty of the murder.
Sgt Patrick Morrissey was shot dead when he was pursuing two masked men after they robbed a post office in Co Louth in June 1985.
Armed detectives shot a man on June 4th, 1997, when they foiled a robbery at Goldenbridge Industrial estate, Inchicore, Dublin. The INLA claimed that the man, who died from his wounds, was one of its members.
??????i. It said the death of its "volunteer" would not be forgotten and accused the gardai of a "state execution."
The following armed robberies have taken place so far this year:
January 5th: Three staff members were held at gunpoint during a four-hour robbery when raiders took a safe from the Riverview Gym, Beaver Row, Donnybrook, Dublin, believed to contain £2,000.
January 6th: More than £10,000 was stolen in two armed robberies on different branches of the Allied Irish Banks in Cork. One in Ballintemple and the other in Bridge Street.
January 12th: A north Dublin man was shot by a detective who interrupted a robbery at a newsagents in South Leinster Street, Dublin.
January 19th: Three masked and armed gunmen got away with about £2,000 from the Monasterboice Inn, Drogheda.
January 22nd: Four armed robbers broke into the home of the owner of a cigarette-vending business in Athlone, Co Westmeath, and stole £6,000.
February 20th: Gardai foiled a robbery by four masked and armed raiders at the AIB branch at Sutton Cross.
March 27th: Three armed raiders escaped with over £9,000 in cash and cheques when they robbed a Quinnsworth store in Arklow, Co Wicklow.