The widow of Det Garda Jerry McCabe, shot dead by the IRA last year, has marked the establishment of a research scholarship under the aegis of the University of Limerick, the Garda and the Irish Peace Institute. It will be known as the Garda Jerry McCabe Research Scholarship.
Speaking at the university yesterday, Mrs Ann McCabe said: "If there is to be any hope of learning from the past, to bring us all to a better future, a place where, as Seamus Heaney has said, hope and history may rhyme, then what better instrument to bring this about than the combination of the Garda Siochana and the academic expertise gathered before us?"
The scholarship research will be located at the Irish Peace Institute research centre at the department of government and society at UL. It will be directed by Prof Dominic Murray of the research centre.
The topic will be to study "the degree of communication, co-operation and relationships that exist between the Garda Siochana and the community as well as interest groups which comprise the multi-agency society which the force serves."
The first recipient is Supt Eddie Mac Eoin, recently appointed to Askeaton. He will be seconded for one year full-time to the centre to carry out research work leading to a master's degree.
The attendance included Dr Edward M. Walsh, president of the university: Assistant Garda Commissioner Mr Martin Mc Quinn; and Chief Supt Eamon Keating, director of the Garda College, Templemore.