Garda McLoughlin and a 23-year-old colleague were sitting in a parked patrol car on the hard shoulder of a wide road near Burt when they were struck on the driver’s side by a car that had earlier sped off from a filling station without paying for fuel.

The fateful events started in the early hours of Sunday when two detective gardaí, in an unmarked car, saw a northern-registered Opel Astra leave at speed from a filling station outside Buncrana. They recognised the driver as someone wanted for questioning and alerted other officers in the area. Some time later Garda McLoughlin pulled onto the hard shoulder when he saw a car approaching at speed. The oncoming car went out of control and crashed into the garda vehicle.

It later emerged that the driver of the Astra was Martin McDermott (24), of Raphoe, Co. Donegal. He should have been serving a six-month prison sentence but had absconded across the border. McDermott was regularly before the courts and has 79 previous convictions, mostly for driving offences, including drink-driving. He has been banned from driving on three occasions, first for five years, then for ten and most recently for 15 years, although he has always ignored such bans.

Sympathy was extended to Garda McLoughlin’s family and colleagues by people in all walks of life. Taoiseach Brian Cowen was in Co. Derry on Monday and took time to visit Buncrana Garda Station to sympathise with Garda McLoughlin’s colleagues.

Up to 2,000 mourners, many of them members of An Garda Siochána, attended the State funeral accorded to Garda McLoughlin on Wednesday. Among the congregation in the church at Foxfield near Fenagh were Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and Garda Bernard McLaughlin who was injured in the crash and was able to walk with the aid of crutches. President Mary McAleese and the Taoiseach were represented by their Aides-de-Camp.

Martin McDermott, who was thrown from the Astra in the crash, remains in hospital with serious head injuries and a broken leg. Whenever he is ready for discharge it is expected that he will be transferred to prison.

Garda McLoughlin was the second young Donegal-based garda officer to die in the line of duty this year. In March Garda Robbie McCallion (29), a native of Swinford, Co. Mayo, was struck by a stolen car that was driven at him in Letterkenny.

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