A RETIRED GARDA who was shot as he worked to free a kidnapped Dutch businessman from his IRA captors in 1975 has died. 

Michael Egan, who was originally from Roscommon, was at the centre of global news when he was shot during the 18-day-long siege. 

Egan, who was in his 80s, died peacefully on St Stephen’s Day surrounded by his family at a nursing home in Malahide, Co Dublin. He is survived by his wife Sally and children Aisling, Seamus, Declan and Shane. 

As a detective sergeant, he lost a finger in the shooting while he was attempting to remove a window at the back of a house where the IRA kidnappers were holed up. One of the attackers fired a shot which struck Egan.

It was during garda efforts to free Dr Tiede Herrema who was held for 36 days by two IRA activists.

Herrema was on his way to work at the Ferenka factory in Ballyvarra, Co Limerick on 3 October 1975 when he was kidnapped.

He had been taken captive by Provisional IRA members Marion Coyle and Eddie Gallagher who planned to demand the release of three republican prisoners who had been imprisoned in Limerick.

Tiede Herrema and his wife Elizabeth Herrema after his release from captivity. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Herrema was held captive for 36 days. This included an 18-day period when he and his captors were under siege at a council house in Monasterevin, Co Kildare.

It was here that Egan was shot when the gardaí were attempting to force the kidnappers to give up. 

The siege eventually came to an end when his captors gave themselves up.

Gallagher received a 20-year jail term and Coyle was sentenced to 15 years. Their motivation for the kidnapping was to force the release of British aristocrat turned IRA art thief Rose Dugdale.  

The Herrema kidnapping was marked by the victim’s response to the incident. Following his release, Herrema expressed no grievances.

It wasn’t the first time the Dutchman was in captivity. He had been arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis for his membership of the Dutch Resistance during World War Two. 

His fortitude then and later in the kidnapping likely originated from his time in a labour camp in Poland. When the prison was liberated he walked 500kms to US Army lines to freedom.  

The Dutchman and his wife Elizabeth were made honorary citizens of Ireland after their ordeal, and made regular trips back here after returning to live in the Netherlands.

They both died in the space of a month in April 2020 with then President Michael D Higgins leading tributes.