Adams slammed over comments about murdered RUC officers

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has suffered a severe backlash after he claimed two of the most senior RUC officers killed by the IRA had only themselves to blame.

Read: Garda collusion over police murders

Politicians on all sides in Dublin and Belfast reacted in disbelief after the republican leader said that Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan effectively drove themselves to their own death.

An eight year tribunal found an IRA mole in the Garda station in Dundalk tipped off a terrorist hit squad that the men were attending a meeting in the town on the day of the murders, March 20 1989.

Mr Adams claimed the RUC men thought they were immune from attack and had "a laissez-faire disregard for their own security".

In his 500-page report, Judge Peter Smithwick found there was collusion in the killings but he has not pointed the finger at any individual officer or civilian.

He found: "It is particularly regrettable that both police services acted swiftly to dismiss speculation of the possibility of collusion rather than to deal with that by means of a thorough and credible investigation.

"This was an example of the prioritisation of political expediency in the short term, without due regard to the rights of victims and the importance of placing justice at the centre of any policing system."

Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan were gunned down on March 20 1989 near the border in south Armagh shortly after a meeting with a senior gardai in Dundalk, Co Louth.

A tribunal into collusion between the Republic's Garda and the Provos has found an unidentified IRA mole leaked information about their movements on the day they were killed.

Two of the most senior RUC men murdered by the IRA in the Troubles were ambushed following collusion between the terror group and a Garda station in the Irish Republic, a damning report has found.