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Widow of PC murdered by the IRA pleads: What did he die for?
Joe Murphy10 Mar 2009
The killers of a policeman lured to his death in an IRA splinter group trap were condemned as “traitors” to Ireland today.
Stephen Carroll was gunned down in a killing condemned on all sides and described by his widow as futile.
Kate Carroll said: “A good husband has been taken away from me and my life has been destroyed. And what for? A piece of land that my husband is only going to get six feet of. These people have just taken my life as well.”
The Continuity IRA claimed responsibility for his death, raising a serious security threat to the province after two soldiers were murdered by another Republican splinter group, the Real IRA, 48 hours ago. Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness described his killers as “traitors to the island of Ireland”.
Details emerged today of the extraordinary courage of Mr Carroll. Despite knowing he was probably entering an IRA trap, he went forward because a frightened woman was crying for help.
Mr Carroll, a 48-year-old father, was cut down with a shot to the head at close range as he got out of his police car. Several officers who also answered the 999 call survived the ambush.
Their bravery was praised by Northern Ireland's police chief Sir Hugh Orde who said, simply: “They received a call for help, they knew they had to go, they went.”
In his most fiery denunciation yet of the terrorist resurgence, Mr McGuinness said: “These people are traitors to the island of Ireland, they have betrayed the political desires, hopes and aspirations of all of the people who live on this island,” he said.
Mr Carroll, who was due to retire next year after more than two decades of service, was the first policeman killed by terrorists since 1998. On Saturday night two soldiers at Massereene barracks, Antrim, died in a machinegun attack in which two pizza delivery men and two other soldiers were seriously hurt.
Mr McGuinness and Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson immediately postponed a planned trip to America to show unity alongside Sir Hugh. Mr Robinson said he was “sickened” by an attempt to wreck peace. “Those responsible for this murderous act will not be allowed to drag our province back to the past,” he said. Sir Hugh vowed: “We will pursue those responsible to the ends of the earth.”
The attack took place in Craigavon, a religiously divided town south-west of Belfast. The Republican splinter group Continuity IRA is known to be active there. Local police received a telephone call at about 9.45pm from a terrified woman who said attackers had thrown a brick through her window in a house in a quiet cul-de-sac.
She was genuinely in terror, Sir Hugh said, but investigators were considering whether the attack on her house was a ruse to lure officers into an ambush. “My officers are very experienced in dealing with these sorts of situations,” he said. “It's too early to speculate if it was a deliberate set-up.
“One thing is clear, there was a real victim in this case. The officers were aware of that, they stood off for a sensible period of time. They received a call for help, they knew they had to go, they went.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said there could be no return “to guns on the streets” of Ulster. “These are murderers who are trying to distort and disrupt and destroy,” he said. “I know the response of the people of Northern Ireland — they want the peace political process to move forward. They do not want a return to guns on the streets.”
Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward made it clear that the Army would not be deployed in towns. “The media has got to be very careful of also falling into something which these criminals would like us to do, which is to speculate on whether we are going to have troops back on the streets. We are not,” he told BBC Radio 4's Today.
Local Sinn Fein councillor John O'Dowd said: “It is murder, not because you want me to say it but because it is.” He said that in recent local elections Real IRA supporters won 300 votes, compared with 14,000 for Sinn Fein and SDLP.
Whitehall sources said the Government was fully satisfied that Sinn Fein had properly condemned the attacks and that its leaders were trying to avert a return to Republican violence. Party president Gerry Adams had likened the dead soldiers at Antrim to IRA men killed by the security forces.
The last member of the RUC to be killed by loyalists was Constable Frank O'Reilly, on 6 October 1998, in a bomb attack in Portadown.
Reader views (8)
blessed are thoes who fight for freedom the only way to end armed struggle is for the british Gov to pull out of Ireland and leave ALL the IRISH PEOPLE to sort out the big mess you coused 800 years ago and for gerry martin and officer gerry kelly to stop fooling republicans that you are leading us to a united Ireland you have set us back 30 years when you sold out for a tie suit and stormont and a bit of power
- Martin, Dublin Ireland, 22/09/2009 17:48
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I hope everyone keeps a cool head and remembers that these individuals are criminals, pursuing a criminal purpose. Both sides must show them up for what they are.
- Roz, Chamonix, France, 22/09/2009 16:48
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There is no going back to the bad old days and the sooner they are caught, tried and convicted, the better.
- K O'Sullivan, Dublin, Ireland, 22/09/2009 16:48
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Britain has to answer one question,who wants a return to the past,when they have the answer they will have the criminals.
- David Nigel Braham, Milan Italy, 22/09/2009 16:48
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Occupying forces invariably provoke violence: Israel's theft of Arab land, Britain's pointless occupation of Northern Ireland, China's annexation of Tibet. It's the same everywhere that illegal occupation occurs.
- Neil M., london uk,, 22/09/2009 16:48
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what another sad day for N Ireland ,what do these people want? what do they expect to achieve from murder,i hope local public opinion is not swayed by these lunatics.
- Pat Hayes, beijing, 22/09/2009 16:48
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If these people want so badly to live in an Irish republic, they should go and live south of the border and leave everyone else in peace.
- Sg, UK, 22/09/2009 16:48
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Unfortunately, the biggest obstacle to bringing the scum responsible for these atrocities to justice will be NuLiebour's human rights laws and obfuscation by local republican politicians.
The political expedient of maintaining the illusion of normality will take precedence over removing these dangerous individuals off the streets.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster, 22/09/2009 16:48
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