Name Michael Clerkin | ||
Michael Clerkin (23 May 1952 – 16 October 1976) was an Irish police officer who was killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army whilst on duty.
Contents
- Early life
- Service with the Garda Siochana
- Ambush at the Garryhinch farmhouse
- Subsequent events
- References
Early life
Michael Augustine Clerkin was native of Monaghan, in County Monaghan, before becoming a police officer he was employed as a clerk,
Service with the Garda Siochana
Clerkin joined the force in 1972. After graduating from the Garda College at Templemore he became Garda officer No.18189G.
In 1976 he was attached to the police station at Portarlington in County Laois.
Ambush at the Garryhinch farmhouse
The Gardaí received an anonymous phone-call stating that IRA members were at a vacant farm at Garryhinch, near Portarlington in County Laois, connected with a plot to assassinate a local politician, Fine Gael TD Oliver J. Flanagan.
On the night of 16 October 1976, Clerkin and four fellow Gardaí (Detective Tom Peters, Sergeant Jim Cannon, Detective Ben Thornton, and Gerry Bohan) were sent to investigate this report. However, the phone call was bogus; it was from the IRA, to lure Garda officers to the farmhouse to ambush them. This was intended as retaliation for the Irish government's Emergency Powers Act, which passed into law that same night. The Emergency Powers Act was intended to combat escalating paramilitary activity in the Republic of Ireland associated with the IRA's newly opened terrorist war in Ulster against the United Kingdom.
The Garda team arrived at the farmhouse, finding no one apparently in the vicinity and the front door locked. Clerkin entered the premises via an open rear window, moved through the house, finding it to be apparently deserted, and opened the front door from within to admit his colleagues. The door was booby-trapped with a bomb, which detonated upon it being opened, killing Clerkin instantly, Detective Peters was permanently blinded and deafened by the blast. Gardas Cannon, Thornton, and Bohan were also wounded, the blast being of sufficient power to demolish the building. Clerkin was in his 25th year.
Subsequent events
The remains of Clerkin's shattered body were buried at Latlurcan Cemetery in the town of Monaghan.
Although there were a number of arrests by the Garda in an intensive search across the Laois-Offaly district for the perpetrators of the ambush, which resulted in a signed confession from a prime suspect, no one has ever been convicted or brought to trial for it.
The survivors of the attack received the Liddy Medal from the Garda Síochána Retired Members Association, awarded for bravery in the line of duty to retired Gardaí officers.