One Garda killed and four injured after bomb is detonated at a farmhouse in Garryhinch County Laois.
Five members of the Garda Síochána from Portarlington and Portlaoise were following up on an anonymous telephone call reporting suspicious activity at an unoccupied farmhouse in Garryhinch.
Garda Michael Clerkin and Detective Garda Bill Thronton entered the building through a rear window. Shortly after. a huge explosion occurred killing Garda Clerkin instantly. Detective Garda Thornton was trapped under rubble. The force of the explosion blew the other Guards into a lane forty yards away while rubble from the destroyed building covered the Garda cars.
The Gardaí are keeping an open mind on who caused the explosion.
Local man Michael Moore was one of the first on the scene. He told RTÉ News,
We heard one man in one particular spot groaning under the rubble so we started there and we got him freed. The sergeant was concerned about another man. He said he had to be somewhere under the rubble.
Garda Commissioner Edmund Garvey appealed to the public for help in catching those who had caused the explosion saying that,
They were a crowd of assassins who had lured this young Guard to his death.
An RTÉ News report broadcast 16 October 1976. The reporter is George Devlin.
