Horkan’s death shows us the fragility of our lives
LAST Sunday was a very sad day in Charlestown and the surrounding area as the family, friends and fellow Garda colleagues of Detective Garda Colm Horkan bid a final farewell to him following his fatal shooting in nearby Castlerea only a few days previously.
While Charlestown is in Co. Mayo, it is only metres from the border with Co. Sligo and only a few kilometres from the Roscommon border.
Garda Horkan had served most of his career in Roscommon towns Ballaghaderreen and Castlerea, only a short distance away. His death brought back sad memories to the people of north Roscommon of the murders of Detective Garda John Morley and Garda Henry Byrne following a bank robbery in Ballaghaderreen on July 7, 1980.
While both incidents are very different they show the fragility of human life for us all, the dangers that members of An Garda Síochána face in their work and how seconds can make the difference between life and death.
I grew up outside Ballaghaderreen, not far from Shannon’s Cross where the two gardaí lost their lives in 1980. In fact, I was at the scene of the crime not long after the incident and the image of the bullet holes in the Garda car has been burned into my mind since that day.
A robbery had taken place in Ballaghaderreen and a Garda car was despatched from Castlerea. The robbers escaped the town taking back roads while the
Garda car sped from Castlerea on the main road perpendicular to the road the robbers were travelling on.
Both cars collided at Shannon’s Cross and within seconds two of the four gardaí who were travelling in the car lay dying, having been shot by the robbers. A difference of seconds brought these two cars together, resulting in the loss of life.
We may never know the exact sequence of events that happened in Castlerea that fateful
Wednesday night but we do know that a seemingly routine encounter between a Garda and a member of the public escalated quite quickly and within seconds Garda Horkan lay on the ground dying, having been shot by his own weapon. In a very different way, seconds made the difference between life and death again.
Matters like these are very sobering for us all. The deaths of gardaí in the course of their work remind us all of our own mortality and how fragile life is. Thankfully we never know what lies ahead for each of us,
Tommy Roddy, Salthill, Galway .