Fionnán Sheehan

There's a huge burst of fire.

I think specifically 15 bullets fired at the two Gardaí.

Gerry McCabe is killed, Ben O'Sullivan very badly hurt, hit multiple times at the time in the immediate aftermath of belief that he

He could not survive his shocking injuries.

One bullet goes into the patrol car.

The next thing is the boys make off.

and that they abscond empty-handed, without the money, leaving mayhem after it.

This is a savage attack on two respected Gardaí going about their business.

One dead at the scene, the other fighting for his life in hospital.

Takes place on Main Street in a relatively small town in rural Ireland.

What was the public reaction to it?

Well, initially, there was stunned sort of shock and silence.

But as things settled down, there was a huge change in public reaction.

And subsequently, at the funeral of Gerry McCabe, it was to the Holy Rosary Church.

People who are halfway familiar with Limerick should know the Gaelic grounds, Toman Park, the Holy Rosary Church is no distance from there.

At the subsequent funeral, and I remember this quite vividly, sorry, I'm getting a bit emotive at the memory of it all, but 50,000 people turned out.

on the streets at the church, which is small enough, thronged.

And to put that in context, the population of the borough of Limerick City at that stage was in or about 50,000.

Yeah, and right across the country, there was an outpouring of emotion by people.

And as you say, it was a strange time in that people were hoping that troubles were over, yet this incident showed that