Gilmore ‘appalled’ at Smithwick’s findings

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has told the Dáil of the “savage circumstances” surrounding the roadside murders of RUC Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Robert Buchanan by an IRA gang who had been assisted by gardaí.

“I cannot get out of my mind the image of one of those men who, when injured outside his car and waving his white handkerchief, was shot dead in the head by an IRA activist. This is what we are dealing with here.”

He said it was not a day for self-justification by anybody or any party. It was not a day for muddying the waters, pulling the Smithwick Report apart or for the rewriting of history.