Fionnán Sheehan

He's still a very, very, very good player.

Very experienced.

For the family of Gerry McCabe, 30 years can still feel like yesterday.

On June the 7th, 1996, the Detective Garda was shot dead in Adair County Limerick during a provisional IRA robbery of a post office van.

His colleague, Detective Garda Ben O'Sullivan, survived after being shot 11 times.

The public reaction was enormous.

But 50,000 people turned out on the streets...

at the church, which is small enough, strong,

For his wife Anne, his five children and the wider McCabe family, the case never fully ended.

Two further suspected members of the IRA gang are still at large and believed to be living abroad.

I'm Fionnán Sheehan and today on the IndoDaily, I'm joined by John Downing, political correspondent with the Irish Independent, to look back at the Adair ambush, the prosecutions that followed and the legacy of Detective Garda Gerry McCabe 30 years after his killing.

John Downing, it's 30 years, believe it or not, since one of the most shocking killings of a Garda in the history of this country and of a Garda Siocana.

So before we get into the details, just tell us, who was Jerry McCabe and what was his background?

He was a 52-year-old detective guard.

Known around him to be a branch man, inseparable from his family.

Policing partner, Ben O'Sullivan, who was a huge, huge man.

The reason why they were so well known on the streets of Limerick was you could not miss Ben O'Sullivan.

The huge man, six foot plus and built accordingly.

Gerry McCabe was smaller, dapper, handsome.

Native of Ballylongford, as I say, the home of the poet Brendan Kennelly, Theo Rahilly and others up on the Shannon Estuary, in Limerick it seemed forever.