Adams sticks to his guns on RUC comments

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has refused to withdraw his “highly offensive” comments in the wake of the Smithwick Tribunal report, saying it was nonsense to suggest he blamed the RUC officers for their own deaths.

However, he repeated his view that the IRA gunmen who murdered the two constables in Mar 1989 were carrying out their duty.

He said his comments that the officers had a ‘laissez-faire” attitude to their own security reflected those of the Smithwick report, which raised concerns about the security arrangements in place for Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan.