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Detective Garda Frank Hand was killed in the line of duty by the Provisional Irish Republican Army on 10 August 1984.
Born in 1958 to a family of seven from County Roscommon, Hand joined the Garda Síochána in 1977, becoming a detective in 1981. He worked in Donnybrook and Irishtown in Dublin, and subsequently worked with the Drug Squad. Early in 1984, he was assigned to the Central Detective Unit at Harcourt Square. In July 1984 he married Breda Hogan (also a member of the Garda Síochána), returning from their honeymoon in Venice at the start of August.
On 10 August 1984, he and Detective Garda Michael Dowd were escorting a cash delivery to a post office in County Meath. Hand was armed with a Smith & Wesson .38 Special, Dowd with an Uzi.
At Drumree Post Office they were attacked by the Provisional Irish Republican Army, who opened fire on the Gardaí. Both were injured, Detective Hand subsequently dying of his wounds. He was one of some sixteen members of the Garda Síochána killed by Irish republicans during The Troubles, and one of thirty-five gardaí killed while on duty, many by the IRA.
Patrick McPhillips, Thomas Eccles and Brian McShane were convicted and sentenced to death, which was commuted to 40 years imprisonment.
In 1998, his brother criticised the Irish government for not consulting his and other families about the release of the killers of his brother, pointing out that he had only found out about the potential releases by accident:
I would accept that there has to be compromise and obviously Northern Ireland has been a very difficult problem. However, in my view the Republic of Ireland was a separate sovereign state; at the time Frank was shot the Republic of Ireland was not at war and I find it very hard to accept that Frank's killers, if you like, should be part of the agreement at all. It is a small comfort, but it is a comfort to know that people who were convicted were doing time ... that at least Frank's life and his work for the State had not been in vain.
We gradually have resigned ourselves to the fact that we are a pebble on the beach, so to speak. There are bigger political agendas at work and we feel that we have no way of influencing these. We feel that the more we push, the more grief and hardship we're bringing on our individual family members and accordingly, I suppose, we have withdrawn, and we'd like to retain our dignity and not get involved in unseemly squabbles. ... one of our biggest gripes was the total lack of consultation and the minister and his officials did give us a firm commitment that there would be consultation and advice from here on out. However, that has not been the case.
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James 'Jim' Lynagh was a member of the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), from Monaghan Town in the Republic of Ireland, who was killed by British special forces while attacking a police station.
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The Smithwick Tribunal was an Irish Tribunal of Inquiry into the events surrounding the killing of Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). The men were killed in a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) ambush near the Irish border at Jonesborough on 20 March 1989 as they returned in an unmarked car from a cross-border security conference in Dundalk with senior Garda officers. The tribunal issued its report on 3 December 2013, finding there had been collusion between members of the Gardaí and the IRA, which resulted in the deaths of Breen and Buchanan. The tribunal took its name from the chairman of the Tribunal, Judge Peter Smithwick.
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The Jonesborough ambush took place on 20 March 1989 near the Irish border outside the village of Jonesborough, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Two senior Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan, were shot dead in an ambush by the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade. Breen and Buchanan were returning from an informal cross-border security conference in Dundalk with senior Garda officers when Buchanan's car, a red Vauxhall Cavalier, was flagged down and fired upon by six IRA gunmen, who the policemen had taken for British soldiers. Buchanan was killed outright whilst Breen, suffering gunshot wounds, was forced to lie on the ground and shot in the back of the head after he had left the car waving a white handkerchief. They were the highest-ranking RUC officers to be killed during the Troubles.
Gary Sheehan was an Irish Garda Síochána officer who was killed in an exchange of gun fire with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during a hostage rescue operation in County Leitrim in Ireland in 1983.
Paul Quinn was a young man from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, who was murdered in 2007. His family subsequently accused the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) of his murder, though no one has ever been convicted in relation to his death.
Adrian Donohoe was an Irish detective in the Garda Síochána based at Dundalk Garda Station in County Louth, who was fatally shot in Bellurgan on 25 January 2013 during a robbery by an armed gang of five people on a credit union. He was the first garda officer to be murdered in the line of duty since 1996, and was afforded a full state funeral.
Inspector Samuel Donegan was a member of the Garda Síochána who was killed by a booby-trap bomb left by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1972.
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Garda Tony Golden was an officer of the Garda Síochána, the national police service of Ireland, who was shot dead by a known dissident republican in a murder–suicide attack near Omeath, County Louth, Ireland on 11 October 2015, while on a domestic violence callout.
The following is a timeline of actions during The Troubles which took place in the Republic of Ireland between 1969 and 1998. It includes Ulster Volunteer Force bombings such as the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in May 1974, and other Loyalist bombings carried out in the 1970s, 80s & 90s, the last of which was in 1997. These attacks killed dozens of people and injured hundreds more. Also actions carried out by Irish Republicans including bombings, prison escapes, kidnappings, and gun battles between the Gardaí (police) and the Irish Defence Forces against Republican gunmen from the Irish National Liberation Army, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and a socialist-revolutionary group, Saor Éire. These attacks killed a number of civilians, police, soldiers, and Republican paramilitaries.
The Garryhinch ambush was a surprise attack on the Garda Síochána by the Provisional IRA on 16 October 1976. A bomb planted by the IRA in a farmhouse at Garryhinch on the County Laois-County Offaly border in the Republic of Ireland was detonated. Garda Michael Clerkin was killed in the blast, and four other Gardaí at the scene were badly wounded. The incident was one of the few occasions during The Troubles when police officers in the Republic of Ireland were deliberately targeted.