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Anger as IRA man walks free after eight year term ONE
of the four IRA men convicted of the manslaughter of Garda Jerry McCabe
has been freed from prison.
Michael O’Neill walked out of Castlerea Prison last week after serving
eight years of an 11-year sentence for his part in the killing.
Pearse McAuley, Jeremiah Sheehy and Kevin Walsh are expected to be freed
in the next two years.
Garda McCabe’s widow Anne a justice campaigner for IRA victims
since the shooting said it was “too soon” to speak about the
release.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said the manslaughter verdict still
disgusted him today and that the men should have been imprisoned for life.
Garda McCabe was fatally wounded in Adare in Co. Limerick in 1996 during
a botched robbery of a Post Office. His colleague, Garda Ben O’Sullivan
was seriously injured but survived.
The slaying caused much revulsion in Ireland and continues to be the source
of rancour to this day.
During the Peace Process, the demands for parole of the four men by Sinn
Féin was met with fierce resistance by the Irish Government.
Sinn Féin argued that the men were entitled under the remit of
the Belfast Agreement to be freed as they were members of a ceasefire-observing
group, the IRA.
The Irish Government steadfastly resisted all attempts, as the victim
was a garda and the IRA initially denied responsibility.
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