Kenny: Adams’s McCabe apology ‘ironic’

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has branded the apology Gerry Adams issued over the murder of Garda Jerry McCabe as “ironic”.

The Sinn Féin leader made the announcement in the wake of the murder of Det Garda Adrian Donohoe.

Mr McCabe was shot by the IRA in an attempted robbery at Adare, Co Limerick, in 1996. Mr Kenny took issue with the time it had taken for the apology to be issued.

“It’s ironic in a way that the leader of the Sinn Féin party decides to issue an apology 17 years after the incident, when all along his party opposed the implementation of the Good Friday agreement until the murderers of Det Gda Jerry McCabe were released,” said Mr Kenny.

He said he disagreed with Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary-Lou McDonald after she said there was a “clear distinction” between the IRA killing gardaí and killing RUC officers during the Troubles.

Making reference to the Smithwick Tribunal, and the fact former IRA members declined to give oral evidence, the Taoiseach said: “Those engaged with Smithwick should now have the decency to give the information necessary for Smithwick to do its work.”

The probe is investigating allegations of collusion in the murders of RUC officers Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan.