Taoiseach’s expression of sympathy on the death of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe

Today, I know I can speak for everyone in this country and in this House, because today, our nation speaks as one.

We speak of a man murdered in the service of his community and his country. We speak of a precious husband, taken from his wife. Of an adored father, taken from his children. We speak of a dearly-loved son, reared by his mother and his father to be courageous, upright, honest. They reared him to be loyal to his community, to his people, to his country.
Today, we pay tribute to this good man who went out to work as normal on Friday, but who never came home.

I can assure everyone here, everyone in his family and in the country that we will do everything possible to bring those who murdered Adrian Donohoe to justice. And we will not rest, we cannot rest, until we have done so.

It is inescapable that the idea of An Garda Siochana, those who protect the peace, is the antithesis of what inspired those who set out to rob last Friday night. In the end what they stole was a human life. And in doing so they stole a family’s happiness, their dreams, they stole the future they imagined living in together, and all that would happen there.

Adrian Donohoe’s murder was an attack not just on the Gardaí, but on society itself. It is equally an attack on what binds us as a people, as nation. And that is our empathy, our compassion. In this murder, the people of Ireland have expressed their revulsion. They have rallied behind the Gardaí.

In particular, I also remember well the murder of Garda Henry Byrne and Garda John Morley in 1980 and in 1996 the murder of Garda Jerry McCabe, the same revulsion the country felt then.

I want to assure the family of Adrian Donohoe and the people of Ireland that those who committed this vile act will face the full rigour of the law. The penalty for those found guilty of killing a member of An Garda Síochána is a minimum mandatory sentence of 40 years imprisonment. And they will serve it.

The Garda Commissioner has made it clear that they are using every resource available to apprehend the murderers. In their efforts they have the full support of the Government, this House and the Irish people.

So it is also appropriate that we today acknowledge the service that members of An Garda Síochána provide on our behalf every day and which might sometimes be taken for granted. Without their willingness to protect the community, violence and disorder would certainly prevail and the rights and wellbeing of law-abiding people would be crushed.

This was the service Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe was providing to his community when his life was taken.

The laws and authority of this State must not and will not be challenged in the manner of the murder of Detective Adrian Donohoe.

May he rest in peace.