Slain garda mourned in Kilkee

PASSENGERS on a bus from Kilkee to the late Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe’s removal in Louth on Tuesday, fell totally silent as they approached the Lordship Credit Union where he was shot dead.
That’s just one of the poignant images that Mayor of Kilkee Claire Haugh recalled when speaking of West Clare people’s journey to pay tribute to a man they knew as the husband of local woman, Caroline Deloughrey.
“As we got nearer to where it happened, people fell silent on the bus. We had read about it and seen the Lordship Credit Union on TV over the weekend but to see exactly where this tragedy happened, that was the defining moment for me personally,” Councillor Haugh said.
Hundreds of people travelled from West Clare on Tuesday and Wednesday to pay their respects at the removal of the remains and the funeral mass and burial.
“Adrian was laid out in his own living room, surrounded by his family on Tuesday. His mother, father, brothers, sisters and the Deloughrey family were all around him. Thousands of people queued up very respectfully and quietly, to go into the house and pay their respects. Not alone has it gripped us here in Kilkee, it has gripped the nation, the whole horror of it,” the Kilkee town mayor added.
“We met the family and met local people in St Patrick’s GAA Club. They were very welcoming to visitors from outside their own community. They talked about their massive loss. The community, the way they worked on Tuesday, would open anybody’s eyes. They went all out in respect to the late Adrian Donohoe. That says a huge amount for him,” she noted.
Councillor Haugh said Det Garda Donohoe’s family and friends are completely devastated.
“There was just raw grief from everybody that we met up there. It was just raw grief, emotion, shock and sadness. There was total bewilderment on a lot of their faces, that this could have happened to such a popular man in their own community,” Councillor Haugh reflected.
She said Garda Donohoe was a regular visitor to Kilkee with his wife, also a serving garda, and their children, Niall and Amy.
“Adrian was a regular visitor here with Caroline and the children every summer.

“People knew him all over the place. There’s that sense of tight community spirit here in the town and a sense of raw emotion with the way he was killed, that this could happen to a member of our police force in this State. He went out to do his job and he was mowed down in cold blood. It’s shocking. There are no words to describe what we’re feeling, not to talk what the people up in Louth are feeling and his own family,” Councillor Haugh said.
The Deloughrey family is involved in several aspects of Kilkee community life, ranging from Kilkee Marine Rescue to St Senan’s GAA Club.
On a broader point, Mayor Haugh stated that she vehemently disagrees with Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s ‘smart policing’ policies, which involves the closure of eight garda stations in Clare this Thursday.
“They are a great source of communication for the local people and that source is now cut off. That should be rescinded and leave the stations open. When a man or woman is in a local station, they are living and working there. They know the community. If something happens to somebody along the road, people will say they saw this or they saw that. That source of communication to the law is cut off,” Councillor Haugh maintained.
She predicts dire consequences if this policy is carried through to its full extent. “I think cutbacks to garda overtime and to people accompanying money to financial institutions, all of those cutbacks are pointing in one direction; maybe what happened on Friday night. Was it due to cutbacks? I don’t know. The cutbacks we’re hearing about now are going to, in the future, contribute to something like that again. It’s a worrying trend. I think governments should not cut spending in justice or health. The working hours of the people protecting us are decreasing and that cannot be right,” Councillor Haugh stressed.