New group to help families of gardaí killed on duty
Gardaí are setting up a group to support the families of members killed in the line of duty.
An estimated 31 officers have been killed or murdered since 1922, and nine more have died in patrol car accidents.
The Garda Survivors Support Association (GSSA) will be headed by Ann McCabe, whose husband Jerry was shot dead by an IRA gang in Adare, County Limerick in 1996.
“Those who have lost a member of the force from their lives often feel left behind by the organisation which had played a major part in their lives. The GSSA will go a long way in redressing this,” she said.
The association will also cater for the families of Gardai who died of natural causes while serving with the force. A peer support network is intended to be the lifeblood of the GSSA, along with a regular newsletter.
Similar associations have been in existence for many years in Britain and the North, which has the Royal Ulster Constabulary Widow’s Association.
In the USA, the Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS) association has 14,000 members and helps the families of the 140 American police officers killed each year.
The GSSA’s patron Dermot O’Donnell, who is also the president of the Garda Representative Association, said the practice of ‘survivor helping survivor’ would help affected families.
He said no garda ever expected to die in the line of duty despite the dangers they faced.
“Tragically, however, it does happen and the surviving family, in addition to the normal emotions associated with bereavement of bewilderment, denial, anger and depression, sometimes endure feelings of isolation and abandonment from the “wider police family”.
The GSSA will be launched at the Westmanstown Sports Centre in Dublin next Thursday. Minister for Justice Michael McDowell and Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy have been invited to attend.
