If public opinion in this part of Ireland required it, yesterday's murderous attack in Adare has surely underlined the imperative of putting a complete end to politically related violence. Detective Garda Jerry McCabe is dead, leaving a grieving widow and family. Detective Garda Ben O'Sullivan is in hospital, out of mortal danger it appears, but seriously wounded. Somewhere, now on the run from the Garda, there are men who planned and organised this crime in the name of Ireland.
The Provisional IRA has denied any involvement in the attack. Only the culpably naive will take that denial at face value. The armaments employed by the attackers, the modus operandi, the well known activities of the IRA in the area all point to its responsibility. No doubt, some sub clause of its regulations will be cited to dissociate that organisation from the activities of a maverick group or of some unit acting without authorisation.
Perhaps those who direct the IRA would not have wanted this to happen. It is certainly counter productive at a time when its political wing is trying to persuade the two governments that it should be allowed to sit in on political negotiations, regardless of what its gunmen colleagues intend to do.
But the problem with violence is that it is seldom containable and it rarely follows the pathways intended by its authors. The uninvolved, like those at Canary Wharf, or those sworn by duty to protect society, like the detectives at Adare are the inevitable casualties.
At this writing, it appears that the Adare attack was a robbery which went wrong, although the possibility of a targeted assault on the two officers cannot yet be ruled out. Whatever the circumstances, this attack has appalled the community and reminds, us with tragic urgency of the risks which are taken daily by the men and women of the Garda Siochana in the course of their duty. Time was when a member of the force was statistically unlikely to encounter firearms even over the span of a full career. Today that situation has changed. Members on plainclothes crime duty now lace the high probability that from time to time, they will be engaged in operations against armed criminals, whether politically motivated or otherwise. It is a grave burden for officers to carry, especially for those with families.
The overwhelming sentiment throughout the country at this moment must be that of sympathy and support for the families of Detectives McCabe and O Sullivan. And bound in with that, a fervent hope that those who have perpetrated this dreadful deed will be swiftly apprehended and made to endure the fullest penalties of the law.