Garda collusion report - Comments by Adams nauseating

In describing the findings of the Smithwick Tribunal report as “absolutely shocking”, Taoiseach Enda Kenny spoke for the vast majority of the Irish people, north and south.

The same can’t be said of the views expressed by Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams. Aimed, presumably, at a small minority of fellow travellers frozen in a time warp, most right-thinking people will find them reprehensible in the extreme.

Mr Adams aside, there is a shared feeling of relief both in the Republic and in the North at the realisation that in no way can this report be described as a “whitewash”. By stating bluntly that there was collusion between gardaí and the IRA in the assassination of two senior RUC officers in south Armagh in Mar 1989, Mr Justice Smithwick has delivered a damning indictment of the Garda force.