John Caldwell described in Dáil as ‘the very best sort of man attacked by the very worst’

Sinn Féin T.D. David Cullinane asked the Oireachtas to join in ‘unreservedly condemning’ the gun attack on the off-duty police officer on Wednesday night.

“My thoughts are with the officer injured in the shooting and with his family who will be traumatised by this attack. It is an attack on the entire community and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

“Anybody who has any information on this attack should bring it forward to the police and the sooner those responsible are behind bars,” said the Waterford T.D.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin said he was ‘struggling to comprehend the savagery and depravity’ of the attack.

He told T.D.s Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell was ‘a man whose day job is finding and prosecuting the worst and most dangerous threats to his community and a man who was spending his time working with young people at a sports centre, coaching them, friendship, teamwork, fitness and so forth.

"He was there with his young son, putting away the equipment and two individuals with weapons walk up and fire multiple shots into his body, shooting him again and again and they do everything in their power to try and kill him in front of his young son and other children - the very best sort of a man attacked by the very worst and I'm sure we are all in this house united in articulating our absolute and heartfelt disgust and condemnation of those behind the attack last evening.

"As has been said by Deputy Cullinane anybody who has any information at all is duty bound and should give that information to the policing authorities and we know that many thousands of others understand the trauma that such attacks and similar experiences over the decades have caused and we do not want to go back to that and will not go back to that,” said the Fianna Fáil leader.

Catherine Murphy, the outgoing joint leader of the Social Democrats, added: “I too want to utterly condemn the shooting of the policeman in Omagh last night. It was truly shocking and unacceptable.

"Our thoughts are for his recovery and for his family. We all hope that incidents like this were very much a thing of the past and these things are a reminder that we can't take peace for granted.”

The Minister for Rural and Community Development Heather Humphrey had earlier sent her ‘thoughts and prayers’ to DCI Caldwell.

"A decent man, he was volunteering and training young children at sport, as happens in every community, North and South. He was off duty when he was shot down in front of his son.

"When he was on the ground, he was shot again. I condemn the cowards, as I know everyone in the House does, who carried out this reprehensible and heinous act. I implore anyone who has information to come forward so that the perpetrators face the full rigour of the law,” said the Fine Gael deputy.

Attempted murder of senior detective John Caldwell at football training 'callous and evil'