SINN Fein TD Martin Ferris is remaining defiant amid growing condemnation of his support for the killers of Garda Jerry McCabe.

The Mayor of Limerick has described Ferris's Dail position as "untenable", while Fine Gael's justice spokesperson Charlie Flanagan said his actions were "reprehensible".

Ferris was among a small group who helped Pearse McAuley (44) and Kevin Walsh (52) evade the media as they were set free from Castlerea Prison after serving 10 and a half years for the 1996 killing.

He continues to claim that his role was to minimise the media attention surrounding the release and thereby minimise the pain for the McCabe family.

However, the move backfired spectacularly with other politicians now rounding on him.

Today, Fine Gael's Charlie Flanagan told the Herald that he "wasn't surprised with the behaviour".

"He showed form insofar as he had close associations with such criminals in the past. I found his greeting and triumphalism to be most disrespectful," said Mr Flanagan.

Asked whether an apology should be forthcoming, Mr Flanagan said: "Those responsible for the killing of Garda McCabe have never apologised. Their behaviour as such suggests that an apology would be a bridge too far."

He added that the senior Sinn Fein representative had been elected by the people but "his behaviour was reprehensible".

Limerick's new mayor Kevin Kiely has gone a step further, describing Kerry TD's position in the Dail as "untenable".

"It wasn't right for a sitting TD to go and collect those killers. I'm not interested in whether he is a friend of theirs -- his conduct is unbecoming of a member of the Dail."

Mr Kiely said: "He was elected by the people of Kerry to represent them as a TD and his job is to legislate for the country.

"That covers judicial legislation too, and it doesn't look right for him to be meeting two people who were initially charged with the murder of Jerry McCabe and the attempted murder of Ben O'Sullivan with the judge accepting a plea of manslaughter."

TRIUMPHALIST

And Sinn Fein defect Cllr John Dwyer from Wexford said his former colleague was "playing to the gallery of republicanism".

Despite this, Mr Ferris was showing no sign of repenting yesterday at the Sinn Fein party gathering in Navan, Co Meath.

He argued that there was a proposal that the men's families and supporters should collect them from Castlerea and that could have led to a worse PR disaster. "We thought it would be triumphalist so I agreed to collect them." He added: "Obviously the intent was to try and diffuse the whole situation and have less media attention on it."

At the jail, Ferris and two colleagues collected the men in a white transit van before driving to a narrow country road where the men changed into a waiting car.

kdoyle@herald.ie