1989 Jonesborough ambush
| 1989 Jonesborough ambush | |
|---|---|
| Part of The Troubles | |
Warrant card photographs of Chief Superintendent Harry Breen (left) and Superintendent Bob Buchanan (right)
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| Location | Near Jonesborough, County Armagh, Northern Ireland |
| Coordinates | 54°4′25.18″N 6°22′26.38″W / 54.0736611°N 6.3739944°WCoordinates: 54°4′25.18″N 6°22′26.38″W / 54.0736611°N 6.3739944°W |
| Date | 20 March 1989 15:40 (UTC) |
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Attack type
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Shooting |
| Weapons | (2) .223 Armalite rifles, (1) Ruger Mini-14, (1) .762 Short rifle |
| Deaths | Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan of the Royal Ulster Constabulary |
| Perpetrator | 2nd Battalion Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade |
The Jonesborough ambush took place on 20 March 1989 near the Irish border outside the village of Jonesborough, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Two senior Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan, were shot dead in an ambush by the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade. Breen and Buchanan were returning from an informal cross-border security conference in Dundalk with senior Garda officers when Buchanan's car – a red Vauxhall Cavalier — was flagged down and fired upon by six IRA gunmen, who the policemen had taken for British soldiers. Buchanan was killed outright whilst Breen, suffering gunshot wounds, was deliberately shot in the back of the head after he had left the car waving a white handkerchief. They were the highest-ranking RUC officers to be killed during the Troubles.
To date nobody has been charged with killing the two officers. There have been allegations that the attack was the result of collusion between the Gardaí and the Provisional IRA. Canadian judge Peter Cory investigated the killings in 2003; his findings were published in a report. This led to the Irish government setting up the Smithwick Tribunal, a judicial inquiry into the killings which opened in Dublin in June 2011 and published its final report in December 2013. In the report Judge Peter Smithwick stated that ‘on balance of probability’, somebody inside the Dundalk Garda station had passed on information to the IRA regarding the presence of Breen and Buchanan.
On the afternoon of Monday 20 March 1989, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen (51) and Superintendent Bob Buchanan (55), both high-ranking officers in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), were returning from an informal security conference with senior officers of equivalent ranks of the Garda Síochána in Dundalk, County Louth, Republic of Ireland. The unscheduled meeting had been arranged that morning by Buchanan over the telephone. The meeting began at about 2.10 pm inside the office of Garda Chief Superintendent John Nolan, where they had drawn up plans for "Operation Amazing", the codename for a co-ordinated effort between the RUC and Gardaí against suspected cross-border Provisional IRA smuggling operations allegedly directed by Thomas 'Slab' Murphy . Breen was also due to meet with Customs and Excise officials the following morning.
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