GARDA GARY McLoughlin made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of his family and the State, mourners at his funeral, just half a mile from his Co Leitrim home, heard yesterday.
Hundreds of gardaí, many of them colleagues from the Donegal division, attended St Mary’s Church in Foxfield, near the village of Fenagh, to hear moving tributes to the 24-year-old, who lost his battle for life in the early hours of last Monday morning.
Garda Bernard McLoughlin, who was with Gary during the fatal collision last weekend, was also in the congregation, walking with the aid of crutches.
Local parish priest Bernard Hogan told Gary’s family that they were enduring the very worst the human heart has to bear – the loss of a loved one. He told Garda McLoughlin’s parents Noel and Una: “You have lost a young, vivacious man who should be with us today, who should be home with his family for Christmas, here with his community, but you are bereft of his presence.”
In one of many heart-rending moments, the young garda’s girlfriend Shauna Bradley brought a brightly wrapped Christmas present she had got for him to the altar as one of the offertory gifts.
As she passed the Tricolour-draped coffin with the young man’s hat and gloves on top, Ms Bradley lovingly stroked it.
Other gifts which Fr Hogan said represented the life and the qualities of the young man included an Arsenal jersey, in recognition of his passion for that club, a symbol of the local Fenagh GAA club which he played for as a youth, a model Honda Integra car symbolising his love for his own car, a photograph of his colleagues at unit C Buncrana, and a “honey monster” toy he bought for his nieces Ava and Kayla.
Close to 2,000 mourners at the State funeral were told the heart had been ripped out of the local community as news of Gary’s injuries and later his death came through.
The priest said that when Gary set out that evening to serve the State and protect the vulnerable, he did not know it would be his last journey.
“A society that has little or no regard for the wellbeing and safety of others and for those who ensure that safety must look into its heart and ask what has gone wrong, where have we failed and how can we put it right,” Fr Hogan said.
The late garda, he said, stood for what was best in Irish society – compassion, care, respect and a sense of national duty.
Among those present were Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy, Deputy Commissioners Martin Callanan and Nacie Rice, head of the Garda Representative Association PJ Stone, and TDs Frank Feighan (FG), Eamon Scanlon (FF) and Denis Naughten (FG), and Senator John Ellis (FF), a neighbour of the McLoughlin family.
The President was represented by her aide-de-camp Capt Brian Walsh, the Taoiseach by his aide-de-camp Comdt Michael Treacy, and there were representatives from the PSNI and the office of the Garda Ombudsman.
Chief mourners included Garda McLoughlin’s parents Noel and Una, his brother Enda, his sister Tracey, his girlfriend Shauna and his maternal grandparents Jimmy and Kathleen Gibbons. Members of unit C in Buncrana station, whom he first served with after leaving Templemore training college, carried the coffin.
The mayor of Donegal, Cllr Brendan Byrne, and the mayor of Buncrana, Cllr Lee Tedstone, were among the large contingent from Donegal who came to Leitrim, in solidarity with the community.
At the Mass, Fr Hogan noted that 26 years ago “to this very day”, another young garda trainee officer had lost his life not too far from the scene of the ceremony. Garda Gary Sheehan was killed during a shoot-out with the kidnappers of businessman Don Tidey near Ballinamore, Co Leitrim.
Meanwhile, it has emerged the driver of the car which collided with Garda McLoughlin’s vehicle had been sentenced to six months in prison in September for driving without insurance. However, the man had been living in the North for a period and the commital warrant was never served on him.