Jonesborough IRA murders in 1989

The Jonesborough IRA murders occurred during the Northern Ireland conflict on March 20, 1989 near the Irish border near Jonesborough in County Armagh, Northern Ireland . Chief Superintendent Henry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) were shot dead in an ambush by members of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade . The victims were on their way back from talks with colleagues from the Irish Garda in Dundalk , County Louth to share information on IRA smuggling activities in the border area. Henry Breen and Robert Buchanan were the two top RUC fatalities in the Northern Ireland conflict.

The attack also became particularly explosive because the Smithwick Tribunal came to the conclusion in 2013 that the attack had been carried out in consultation with one or more members of the Garda.

prehistory

In the Northern Ireland conflict, IRA units operated in southern County Armagh with far greater freedom than IRA units in other parts of Northern Ireland, which was due, among other things, to the extraordinarily high level of support in the almost exclusively Catholic-nationalist population of this area. Due to the danger of attacks by the notorious South Armagh Brigade, the British Army avoided the overland route in southern Armagh, operated mostly with helicopters and tried to control the area from several watchtowers.

Armagh borders the Irish counties of Louth and Monaghan to the south , the inner-Irish border being defined in the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. The demarcation interrupted the close ties between the area in the south of Armagh around Crossmaglen and the town of Dundalk in Louth. In 1925 a proposal by the Joint Borders Commission became known to include an area around Crossmaglen with approximately 14,000 almost exclusively Catholic-nationalist residents in Ireland. The proposal remained unrealized.

Because of the historical and social ties of the regions, the IRA was able to fall back on supporters and supporters in Ireland, and IRA fighters used Ireland as a retreat and base of operations. RUC and Army were forbidden to cross the Irish border, which protected the perpetrators from direct British countermeasures. After the Warrenpoint attack from Ireland in 1979 , Irish detection and prosecution measures were deemed by British investigators to be uncooperative and inadequate.

Cooperation between the RUC and Garda

To promote cross-border cooperation between the two countries, the Anglo-Irish Agreement was finally signed in 1985 and a working group with members of both police forces was created. In this working group information and operational resources in the fight against the IRA should be exchanged. The H-Division of the RUC, based in the capital Armagh , was responsible for large parts of the County of Armagh under Chief Superintendent Henry Alexander "Harry" Breen, who had been in the service of the RUC since 1957. Superintendent Robert "Bob" Buchanan, who had served in the RUC since 1956, was head of the border division of the H Division. Breen and Buchanan were therefore key people in the cross-border collaboration.

In 1989, to combat cross-border smuggling crime, those responsible on both sides met several times. From January to the time of the attack, Buchanan drove his red Vauxhall Cavalier with Northern Irish license plates to his Irish colleagues across the border 22 times , including 14 times to the Dundalk police station. These meetings were usually arranged at short notice and over the phone. In contrast, Henry Breen did not often take part in the trips to nearby Ireland, the last time before the attack on February 2, 1989.

On March 20, 1989, another meeting between Robert Buchanan and Henry Breen, as well as their Irish counterparts Garda Superintendent Pat Tierney and Garda Chief Superintendent John Nolan had been arranged in Dundalk by telephone. This should talk about smuggling activities of the IRA under the alleged control of Thomas Murphy .

attack

Breen went from Armagh to Newry and met Robert Buchanan there before taking Buchanan's Vauxhall across the Irish border and to the Garda station in Dundalk. After the hour-long meeting, Breen and Buchanan left the meeting room of Garda Chief Superintendent John Nolan and returned to their vehicle in the front yard of the station. With this they drove back to Northern Ireland at border checkpoint 10 and continued on the rural Edenappa Road.

Only a few hundred meters across the border, two IRA fighters had stopped three vehicles at a difficult-to-see spot near Jonesborough, thereby creating an improvised road block. The occupants of these vehicles had to lie on the ground on the street. When Breen and Buchan reached the place and realized the situation, they tried to turn around on the narrow street, but they failed. Four masked men stepped out of a subsequent bright van and immediately opened fire on the two unarmed plainclothes officers. While Buchanan died of his gunshot wounds while in the vehicle, Breen was only fatally shot outside the vehicle. In his hands he was holding a white handkerchief with which he probably wanted to signal his task. The perpetrators then took documents from the vehicle and escaped from the crime scene in their van.

Only a few minutes after the shooting, emergency calls and reports were made to the RUC in Forkhill and the British Army's Royal Regiment of Fusiliers . Due to a snowsquall , the falling darkness and the possible danger of booby traps, the bodies could not be recovered until the next day. Both victims had multiple gunshot wounds, including close range headshots.

On March 22, 1989 at around 11 p.m., the IRA made a radio announcement about the attack.

Investigations

The investigation turned out to be difficult and dangerous because of the IRA operating in South Armagh and the people loyal to this organization. Two of the four weapons found were linked to other crimes in South Armagh through ballistic investigations. The van used by the perpetrators was stolen on March 18 and burned shortly after the crime. The wreck could only be secured on March 29th. Investigations into suspicious vehicles and telephone calls in the vicinity of the Garda station in Dundalk on the day of the crime remained inconclusive. A beverage bottle and a handkerchief were found at the crime scene, but no DNA traces could be found on them. The target of the attack is said to have been Henry Breen, who is said to have been considered an object of hate by the IRA due to his television appearance after the attack in Loughgall in 1987 .

Based on the investigations, the following timing could be reconstructed;

2: 00–2: 10 pm: Breen and Buchanan arrive at the Garda station in Dundalk
2:30 p.m.: The later perpetrator vehicle comes from the south on Edenappa Road and stops at an abandoned house, which is entered by five of the vehicle occupants
3: 15–3: 8 pm: The meeting in Dundalk has ended. Breen and Buchanan reach their vehicle in the front yard of the Garda station
approx. 3:30 pm: The perpetrator's vehicle picks up the five people from the house and parks them on the right side of Edenappa Road
3:35 p.m.: Two of the men in the perpetrator's vehicle take positions at a hidden spot on the street
3:40 p.m .: The two men stop three vehicles, force the occupants to lie on the ground and set up a barrier
3: 40–3: 58 pm: This is the period during which the murders of Buchanan and Breen take place
3:58 p.m .: The British Army's Royal Fusiliers Regiment is informed of a red vehicle with lifeless bodies on Edenappa Road
16:10: An emergency call reaches the RUC in Forkhill

There were suspicions of a mole in the Garda area. Before leaving Armagh, Breen had raised concerns about the trip to Dundalk to his staff officer Alan Mains and suspected some Garda officers of complicity with Thomas Murphy, who was the target of the cross-border investigation at the time. As early as April 1987, the RUC had been informed by the Garda Detective Superintendent Tom Curran about the IRA's plans to attack RUC officials in the working group. Buchanan also suspected Garda officer Owen Corrigan in Dundalk of complicity in the IRA and reported his concerns to Tom Curran, which he passed on to Garda headquarters. Curran denied the allegations. Investigations into suspects in the Garda station of Dundalk by Garda Assistant Commissioner Edward O'Dea remained unsuccessful.

Suspected of collaboration between people associated with the Garda with the IRA concerning the murders also expressed the journalist and author Toby Harnden in his 1999 published and 2000 revised book "Bandit Country" and the journalist Kevin Myers in an article in the Irish Times from March 2000. Jeffrey Donaldson of the House of Commons also suspected information was passed on to the IRA, naming former Detective Sergeant Owen Corrigan, who had already been suspected by Robert Buchanan.

Camon Report

In April 2000, Garda Chief Superintendent Sean Camon and Detective Inspector Peter Kirwin re-examined all the results of the investigation and files relating to the murders and interviewed journalists Toby Harnden and Kevin Myers regarding their sources of information. The final Camon Report named three former Garda officers who were stationed in Dundalk in March 1989 and who in one or more cases had inappropriately exposed to subversive forces.

The suspects were Owen Corrigan, Sergeant Leo Colton, and Sergeant Finbarr Hickey. The latter pleaded guilty in May 2001 of circulating forged passport application forms. These forged forms were used to apply for passports, some of which were later found in the possession of senior IRA members. However, a direct connection to the murders could not be established.

Cory Collusion Inquiry Report

At that time in Northern Ireland there were calls for investigations into a number of murders during the time of the Northern Ireland Conflict. As part of efforts to implement the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, intensive discussions took place between government officials from Northern Ireland, Ireland and England. As part of the Weston Park Accord it concluded , a number of selected assassinations were to be dealt with by a retired judge of international standing. This judge should then make a recommendation as to whether a public investigation should take place.

The former Canadian judge Peter Cory was entrusted with this task from 2002 . The six selected assassinations also included the one on the RUC officials in 1989. In his Cory Collusion Inquiry Report published in 2003, Cory came to the conclusion that the accumulated burden of proof made a collusion between the Garda and IRA in the RUC murders appear possible and recommended a public investigation into the crime.

Smithwick Tribunal Report

In accordance with the agreements and Judge Cory's recommendation, a tribunal for the public inquiry under Judge Peter Smithwick, the Smithwick Tribunal , was established in 2005 by Irish Justice Minister Michael McDowell . The arduous tasks of the tribunal in the first few years included requesting and securing documents, findings and evidence, as well as finding and questioning witnesses. The public hearings were held from June 2011 to May 2013, with over 200 witnesses giving evidence. The final report was presented in December 2013.

According to the report, the IRA forces were undoubtedly provided with information about the movements of Buchanan and Breen by one or more people from the Garda station in Dundalk. However, no suspect could be identified by name.