John Roche (detective)

[2] On 3 January 1940, Roche was fatally shot by Tomás Óg Mac Curtain, an IRA commandant and the son of Lord Mayor Tomás Mac Curtain, who had been killed by British forces during the Irish War of Independence.

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.

[7] Mac Curtain was initially sentenced to death, following an inquest held on 8 January, however, he was later granted clemency and released after seven years.

[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".

Inspector Jim Moore, who led the attack, later boasted that his action was a reprisal for the shooting of Detective Roche.