Fionnán Sheehan

By June 1996, when this horrific incident occurred, costing the life of Detective Garda Gerry McCabe, we were in a very messy period.

And the summer of 1996 was one of the most disturbed years.

politically and on the streets of Northern Ireland.

You were winding up for the marching season, very tense.

We were winding up for what became the standoff at Drum Cree just weeks later.

And as I say, at very least messy, but tense and very worrying.

Now,

Growing up back in the 80s, 90s, it was very familiar to see the army on the streets of regional towns around the country, escorting money vans to banks.

We were a cash economy at the time, a high security presence because of that threat, particularly from the IRA or other armed gangs.

So tell us then about what happened then in Main Street, in Adair, and why were Gerry and Ben there?

Well, they were escorting a post office van which was delivering social welfare money in the early morning, round about 7am, June 7th 1996, picturesque town of Adair, calm, kind of sleepy really, and basically the IRA were on a mission to steal dole and pension money so that Ireland could be free.

So,

The post office van, coincidentally, I am from Limerick, driven by a neighbour of ours, of my family from the Bally Simon area, a man called Willie Jackson.

He pulled up and the Garda escort behind him, an unmarked Garda car, but unmistakably a Garda car, with Detective Garda, Jerry McCabe, then age 52, as I say, and Ben O'Sullivan,

a similar age, they were behind the car.

Suddenly, all hell breaks loose.

The post office man has his hands high in the air, backing off the footpath.

He's terrified because he realizes his natural terror is augmented by the realization that these robbers are really quite wound up themselves and extraordinarily nervous.

So there aren't any teeth.

So anything can happen at this point.