Garda Michael Reynolds was the third garda to be killed in the era of the troubles. He was shot dead in St Anne’s Park after a bank robbery in September 1975. He had been off duty, out shopping with his wife and daughter when he came across the raiders’ getaway car. He fearlessly pursued the raiders and caught up with them in the park where he was brutally gunned down within earshot of his family.
Marie and Noel Murray were later convicted of his capital murder, initially sentenced to death. On appeal and retrial they were convicted of murder and received the lesser sentence of life imprisonment. They later took an unsuccessful constitutional case for conjugal rights in prison.