Michael Downing

Constable Downing died nineteen hours after being fatally wounded while walking his beat at 2:00am when he was shot by one of three men as he crossed the street near Christchurch Cathedral, in the historic Liberties area of Dublin.

He had, earlier, swapped his shift to that night at the request of a colleague who had a date.

Michael, who was originally from a farming family on the Beara Peninsula, was described as being ‘well liked and inoffensive’.