Richard Christopher Fallon (18 December 1926 – 3 April 1970) was an Irish police officer who received the Scott Medal. He was the first member of the Garda Síochána to be killed in the line of duty as a consequence of The Troubles Early life Fallon was a native of Moneen, Kilrooskey, in County Roscommon. He was initially employed in farming, before joining the police service. Before his police career he had been a soldier in Ireland's 'Local Defence Force', a reserve formation of the Irish Army. Police service Fallon joined the Garda Siochana on 5 November 1947, as Officer No.9936; simultaneous to his own career with the force he had 3 brothers also serving with it. In 1970 he was attached to the Mountjoy Garda Station in Dublin. Arran Quay shooting On the morning of 3 April 1970 three armed members of the Irish Republican paramilitary organisation Saor Éire were in the process of robbing a branch of the Royal Bank of Ireland at Arran Quay in Dublin, as part of a spree of bank robberies the organisation had conducted in the Republic of Ireland from 1967 onwards in pursuance of finance for operations in Northern Ireland. when Gardaí Paul Firth and Richard Fallon arrived, without firearms to defend themselves, on the scene in their patrol car, the police having been alerted that something was wrong at the location by the gang's cutting of the bank branch's telephone wires. On confronting the three gunmen in front of the bank, Firth and Fallon were repeatedly fired at. Firth, who was behind Garda Fallon, called back to another police officer still in the patrol car to call for help on the radio, before diving to the ground to avoid the bullets aimed at him. Ignoring the fire, Fallon went forward to grab one of the gunmen, and was fatally shot in the neck and shoulder by one of the other two. The paramilitary robbery gang afterwards fled the scene having stolen £2000 from the bank branch. Fallon was in his 45th year. He was the first member of the Garda Síochána to be murdered in the line of duty for almost three decades. State funeral & honours Fallon's body was accorded by the Irish Government a state funeral, with up to 1000 Garda officers attending its course, and was buried at the Saints Peter & Paul Cemetery, at Balgriffin in North