A GARDA sergeant told the Smithwick Tribunal yesterday it was surprising two RUC officers travelled on a back road from Dundalk Garda station to Northern Ireland before they were killed in an ambush by the IRA.
Sgt Vincent Jackson said the talk in the station was that gardaí would have expected the RUC men to take the main road between Dundalk and Newry on their return journey and there was considerable surprise that the officers had taken a back road through south Armagh.
“On a quiet, isolated road you take much more of a risk than going the main road,” he said.
Sgt Jackson said he was going off duty shortly after 2pm on Monday, March 20th, 1989, when the two officers passed him on the steps of the station. He said he did not recognise the men from previous visits but understood them to be RUC officers as “they were well dressed. They cut a certain dash.”
Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan were killed in an IRA ambush on a “blind spot” on the Edenappa Road, near Jonesboro, Co Armagh. The tribunal is inquiring into suggestions that members of An Garda Síochána or other employees of the State colluded in the killings.
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