A memorial 41 years in the making to two members of the Irish security forces killed by the Provisional IRA has been unveiled in Co Leitrim.
Pte Patrick Kelly (36), a father of four from Moate, Co Westmeath, and Recruit Garda Gary Sheehan (23) were shot dead during the rescue of the businessman Don Tidey on December 16th, 1983.
The memorial outside Ballinamore Garda station is designed by local artist Jackie McKenna. It is eight kilometres from Derrada Wood in the townland of Corraleehan where Mr Tidey was kept for 23 days by a Provisional IRA and where both men were murdered.
It consists of two pillars, one representing An Garda Síochána and the other the Irish Defence Forces. The circular stone in the middle represents the hollow void left by the deaths of the two men. The concentric ripples portray the extended impact of their death.
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“This day is a long time in coming,” said concelebrant Fr Joe Kennedy at a packed St Patrick’s Church. The Kelly family were represented by Pte Kelly’s sons David, Michael, Patrick and Sgt Andrew Kelly who was just 10 weeks old when his father was killed.
He has kept the tradition of army service as has his son Pte Ethan Kelly. Pte Kelly’s only surviving brother John was also there. The Sheehan family was represented by his sister Gráinne, her husband Martin McAveney and their grandson Luca McAveney
The congregation included the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, the assistant chief of staff of the Defence Forces brigadier general Rossa Mulcahy, the Minister of State at the Department of Justice James Browne, local TDs Frank Feighan, Marian Harkin and Eamonn Scanlon and the chairman of Leitrim County Council Cllr Paddy O’Rourke.
Kelly and Sheehan have been memorialised elsewhere, but not in Co Leitrim where they died.
David Kelly has long campaigned for his father to be remembered near where he died.
“He was murdered in the line of duty by Provisional IRA terrorists. The sense of injustice that no one has been held accountable for his murder is still raw,” he said.
“The monument in Ballinamore means that a concrete place exists where we can remember and reflect upon the service and sacrifice of our father, a member of the Óglaigh na hÉireann, Irish Defence Forces, and Garda Gary Sheehan.
Chief Superintendent Aidan Glackin, the main driving force behind the memorial, was one of the class of September 1983 garda recruits who were tasked just 16 weeks into their training in the search for Mr Tidey.
Speaking at the funeral mass in St Patrick’s Church for the two men, he recalled how his friend Gary Sheehan had been killed in the service of the State. Many of those garda recruits who took part in the search for Don Tidey attended the ceremony.
Commissioner Harris said the sacrifice of the two men “is etched now in stone. They played an eternal price and so it is right and just that their memories are eternally recognised here. Gardaí go to work every day with one core mission – to keep people safe.”
Mr Browne described the courage displayed by the security forces in the rescue of Don Tidey as “astounding”.
He added: “They did not know exactly what they would find, but they knew they were placing themselves in peril. But they did not take a backward step.
“To go toward danger and to put oneself in harm’s way to protect another is an incredible act of bravery.
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