Michael Clerkin

Michael Clerkin, 23 May 1952 – 16 October 1976, Garda 18189, killed by an IRA bomb.

Background

A native of Monaghan town, and previously a clerk, Clerkin joined the force in 1972.

Clerkin and fellow Gardaí Tom Peters (Detective), Jim Cannon (Sergeant), Ben Thornton (Detective), and Gerry Bohan, were following up a tip-off that the IRA were active at an abandoned farm at Garryhinch in County Laois, and it was part of a plot to kill Fine Gael TD Oliver J. Flanagan. However it was a deliberate lure by the IRA, who had the farmhouse with explosives in a calculated response to the newly signed Emergency Powers Bill.

Clerkin entered the farmhouse via an open read window, and opened the front door from inside. This triggered the booby trap, killing him instantly and all but demolishing the house. Gardas Cannon, Thornton, and Bohan survived relatively uninjured, but Tom Peters was rendered deaf and blind. No one has ever been charged in relation to the incident.

The survivors received the Liddy Medal from the Garda Síochána Retired Members Association, a special medal for bravery awarded to retired Gardaí who have never received the more prestigious Scott Medal

See also

External links

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