There is no moral distinction between the unlawful killing of a member of the Garda Siochana and a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The loss of an RUC officer's life brings no less grief and pain to family and community than that of a garda.
Sinn Fein and IRA supporters say they can see no reason why those who shot Det Garda Jerry McCabe, and grievously wounded his colleague, Det Garda Ben O'Sullivan, should be treated any differently from those who have murdered RUC officers and who are now free under the terms of the Belfast Agreement. Many ordinary citizens of Northern Ireland are angered at what they see as the cynical drawing of a distinction between the value of RUC lives and that of a garda.
There can be no distinction in the value of police officers' lives. But there are, perhaps, some differences in circumstances and these may be significant. The Garda Siochana has operated on the assumption that as a largely unarmed force they will not be "first strike" targets of republican paramilitaries. Indeed, the IRA's "Green Book" expressly prohibits attacks on gardai. And it will be recalled that the men who killed Det Garda McCabe in the most savage and callous manner were initially denounced by their IRA superiors who said they were operating without the organisation's authority. It is not difficult, in these circumstances, to understand why public opinion in the South - as distinct from Northern Ireland - may see an attack on the gardai in a somewhat different light to attacks on the RUC.
The Government's thinking in this matter must be defined by two conflicting influences. There is a real fear of running against public opinion and alienating the gardai and their families by even appearing to contemplate the release of the McCabe killers. On the other hand, there is considerable pressure building within the provisional republican movement for what is seen as the natural and inevitable consequence of the Agreement. The Government knows, moreover, that it is important to support the leadership of Sinn Fein/ IRA at a time when fears are growing over dissident elements.
The McCabe murder trial was accompanied by the most vicious threats against witnesses. The republican movement used every means at its disposal - including such threats - to seek to undermine the trial process. Nonetheless, in the aftermath of the Agreement, it may have been thought that the genesis of a compromise solution could lie in the fact that Det Garda McCabe's killers were convicted, in the end, not of murder but of manslaughter and, in one case, of conspiracy. Manslaughter convictions usually draw a relatively short period in custody and there is scope for ministerial review and intervention. But the repeated declarations by the Government that it stands by its initial promise of a "significant" jail term would appear to rule out any early initiative.
It might well be that the Government would be relieved if Sinn Fein were to mount a legal challenge to the continued detention of the McCabe killers. There is a view among some legal experts that the terms of the Belfast Agreement must extend to Det Garda McCabe's killers and that the Government's stance cannot prevail over the terms of an internationally-binding treaty. If this position were to be vindicated by the courts the Government could claim that it would wish to hold to its stated position but that it must bow to the rule of law.
Such an outcome would undoubtedly add to the sense of deep anger among the gardai and among a wide sector of public opinion in this State. But recent spins and leaks suggest that the first manoeuvrings have started towards an unpalatable end.