John Roche (detective)

On 3 January 1940, Roche was shot fatally by Tomás Óg Mac Curtain, an IRA commandant and the son of Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork Tomás Mac Curtain, who had been assassination by the Royal Irish Constabulary during the Irish War of Independence.^[3] Roche and two fellow Gardaí approached and attempted to question Mac Curtain about illegal activities when the latter produced and fired a revolver.^[4] Roche was taken to the North Infirmary Hospital, where he died from his wounds the following day.^[2][3]

A cortège funeral was held on 6 January. Roche's coffin was carried from Cork to Mallow and to his final resting place in Abbeyfeale, where Gerald Boland, Minister for Justice, tendered his sympathy. Other attendees included Michael Kinnane, Patrick Brennan, Patrick Carroll, and James Hickey.^[5][6]

The case aroused considerable interest in Ireland.^[7] Following an inquest held on 8 January, Mac Curtain was tried convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging.^[8] A statement issued on 10 July 1940 declared: "The President, acting on the advice of the government, has commuted the sentence of death on Thomas MacCurtain to penal servitude for life".^[9]

Mac Curtain was later granted clemency and released after seven years incarceration.^[8]

Similarly to the 1942 ambush slaying of Garda Siochana Detective Sergeant Denis O'Brien, Detective Roche's death at the hands of the IRA caused widespread public hostility to the movement and strengthened support among the Irish people for the Fianna Fáil government.^[1][10]

The historian Uinseann MacEoin observed that some Gardaí in the Special Detective Unit were understandingly outraged following the murder of Detective Roche and the leniency granted to his killer. John Joseph Kavanagh, an IRA Volunteer, was fatally shot by the Garda Síochána on 3 August 1940 during an attempt to break IRA prisoners out of Cork Prison. Inspector Jim Moore, who led the Gardaí who prevented the prison break, later boasted that he considered Kavanagh's death to be retribution for the murder of Detective Roche.^[11]

• Unnamed 1 (8 January 1940). "His Last Sad Homecoming: Funeral of Shot Detective". Irish Independent.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Unnamed 2 (8 January 1940). "Shot Detective". Belfast newsletter.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Breathnach, Seamus (1974). The Irish Police From Earliest Times to the Present Day. Anvil Books.
• Coogan, Tim Pat (1980). The I.R.A. London, England: Fontana. ISBN 9780006359326 – via Internet Archive.
• MacEoin, Uinseann (1997). The IRA in the Twilight Years: 1923-1948 – via Internet Archive.
• Flynn, Barry (2009). Soldiers of folly : the IRA border campaign 1956-1962. Cork, Ireland: Collins. ISBN 9781848890169 – via Internet Archive.
• Burke, Edward (1 September 2018). An Army of Tribes: British Army Cohesion, Deviancy and Murder in Northern Ireland. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9781786948632. Archived from the original on 22 September 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2020 – via Google Books.
• Wallace, Colm (8 May 2017). "Garda assassinations and IRA executions during the Emergency". The Irish Times. Dublin, Ireland. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
• Poland, Pat (22 February 2022). "Six Cork gardaí who died in line of duty". The Echo. Cork, Ireland. Retrieved 2 July 2022.